M. volleyball: Men’s volleyball set to face Lewis

Coming off an impressive victory over Hawai’i on Saturday,
the Bruins return home Wednesday with the No. 1 ranking to face
defending national champion No. 14 Lewis.

The match is crucial for the Bruins in terms of revenge and
playoff seeding. UCLA (13-3, 8-3 MPSF) lost to Lewis (8-8) in five
games last year and don’t want a repeat performance. The
match also has postseason ramifications as the Bruins are trying to
give themselves an advantage over the Flyers when it comes to
securing a bid for the Final Four.

“We definitely want to put ourselves in the position that,
in the case we need an at-large bid, we can show definitively that
we deserve the spot over any team outside the MPSF,” coach Al
Scates said.

A significant event from the past weekend against Hawai’i
was the play of sophomore outside hitter Damien Scott. Scott played
a important role in Saturday’s match against Hawai’i,
making many pivotal passes off serves and finishing with nine kills
off the bench.

“Damien really stood out over the weekend,”
assistant coach Brian Rofer said. “He was able to neutralize
Hawai’i’s main server Pedro Azenha and that really
helped us win the match.”

Scott was rewarded for his performance, as he was named the
starting outside hitter for Wednesday’s match, replacing
senior hitter J.T. Wenger. This will mark the first home start of
Scott’s career

“The match will definitely be very exciting,” Scott
said. “They are the defending national champions, and I look
forward to starting against them.”

Lewis comes into Wednesday’s match after a disappointing
loss to unranked USC Monday. The Flyers still have three
All-Americans left from last year’s championship team, but
have struggled this year with the absence of first-team All-America
junior Gustavo Meyer and senior setter Jose Martins.

Both Meyer and Martins, from Mexico and Brazil, respectively,
have sat out the entire season thus far, presumably due to
eligibility questions.

“Lewis is definitely not as good as it was last year, but
it still is a team that we need to take seriously,” senior
Chris Peña said. “We do not want a repeat of last
year’s performance.”