UCLA seeks to bridge peaks, valleys in competition with consistent play
By Tanner Walters
April 10, 2015 1:54 a.m.
In just two days this weekend, the UCLA men’s volleyball team will travel from the highest peak of the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation to the lowest valley – all without ever leaving Pauley Pavilion.
No. 12 UCLA (11-12, 7-12 MPSF) hosts No. 4 UC Irvine (23-4, 17-3) on Friday before shifting its attention to unranked UC San Diego (2-23, 0-19) the next night.
The Anteaters sit tied atop the conference, holding at least one victory over every league opponent and having already clinched the home-court advantage in the MPSF tournament quarterfinals.
The Tritons, on the other hand, find themselves looking up at the rest of the MPSF for the third year in a row.
All three teams come into the weekend on various streaks. UC Irvine is on a five-match win streak, whereas UCLA has won only once in its last seven matches, currently mired in a four-game slide. UC San Diego, still without an MPSF victory, has been winless since late February.
Even while losing four in a row, UCLA has experienced some recent bright spots against rivals like No. 1 Hawai’i and No. 3 Pepperdine. Two of the four losses went to a fifth set, and there has been steady improvement in matches against some of the best teams in the country.
“I felt in some ways we played okay (against Pepperdine),” said coach John Speraw. “We passed pretty well – I think that skill has improved and will continue to improve for us, so that’s a nice sign. I thought we did an adequate job on a couple of their hitters, and it felt like many of the choices we were making were the right ones.”
Offensive miscues plagued the Bruins as the team combined for 20 errors from the service line and 14 on attacks. A stronger defensive effort kept the young team competitive late into each set, but the Waves prevailed every time.
“We were with them most of the way but couldn’t get past our own errors plus a couple of their good plays,” said freshman outside hitter J.T. Hatch.
UCLA, still leading the conference with 1.52 aces per set, will need to return to its sharp serving Friday night to help overcome UC Irvine.
In February, the Anteaters swept the Bruins, never allowing more than 20 points (19-25, 17-25, 17-25). UC Irvine, which leads the nation in kills, assists and hitting percentage, outhit UCLA .317 to .045 and added nine aces on top of everything.
To compete with that onslaught, the Bruin defense will need to play like it did at Pepperdine. Offensively, the team’s ability to finish must improve – both in terms of individual sets and the match as a whole.
“Teams are getting better and everybody’s improving – including us,” said freshman opposite Christian Hessenauer. “A big thing with us is that we can’t lose focus throughout the game. We sometimes start strong, but we’ve lost every five-setter that we’ve played.”
Saturday night projects to be less of a challenge than Friday. UCLA swept UC San Diego in La Jolla (25-22, 25-21, 25-16) during a match that allowed Speraw to utilize his entire roster while testing various lineups around the season’s halfway mark.
Following this weekend, however, the Bruins will only have a single regular season match remaining on their schedule. Sitting in ninth place in the MPSF standings, the team must find a way into the top eight in order to make the playoffs.
