UCLA braces for Hawai’i machup
Jack Polales, left, has recently begun splitting playing time at opposite.
By Vidur Malik
Feb. 3, 2010 10:22 p.m.
After splitting a two-game series at home against BYU, the UCLA men’s volleyball team is hitting the road for another back-to-back set of matches. This time, the team will be away from home, taking on Hawai’i this Thursday and Friday.
The No. 4 Bruins (4-5, 3-3 MPSF) will look to continue their streak of impressive play in order to have a successful weekend against the No. 6 Warriors (6-3, 4-2), who are coming off of a two-match sweep of UC Irvine, last year’s national champions.
Coach Al Scates knows Hawai’i has momentum on their side.
“They’ve got a pretty good team,” Scates said. “They’ve won four straight, they’re hot. They beat Irvine, the defending national champion, two in a row, so they’re on a roll right now.”
The Warriors have looked to junior outside hitter Joshua Walker and freshman outside hitter Jonas Umlauft for production.
“Those are the two guys we’re going to have to slow down,” Scates said. “They get a lot of sets and a lot of kills.”
The Bruins are now looking to improve their own hitting. Now that their blocking has improved, Scates is hoping his team can take advantage of scoring opportunities.
“We’re going to work on hitting better, for higher numbers,” Scates said. “We’re starting to hold our opponents down now due to our better blocking, and we’re digging well, we’re outdigging our opponents. What we need to do now is to start scoring when we get a dig that we can’t go to the middle on, or a pass. We need to start scoring better either out of the back or the front.”
Scates is confident his team will continue to block well.
“We put extra emphasis on blocking since the Pepperdine game, and it’s paid off,” Scates said. “Even against BYU the second night, we still blocked well. That’s not going to drop back to a low level, I think we’re going to be blocking well the rest of the year.”
In addition, the team has also worked on its sideout productivity.
While senior Garrett Muagututia has manned one outside hitter spot, Scates has looked to multiple players to play well as the other outside. Redshirt junior Dylan Bowermaster and redshirt sophomore Jeremy Casebeer usually split time at that spot, but Scates mentioned that freshman Chen Levitan and sophomore Mitchel Johnson have been practicing well.
“If the starters are playing well, they’re not going to come out,” Scates said. “But if they’re not, we’re going to look at the other guys.”
Levitan has seen an increase in playing time and has come in during serving substitutions. He said he hopes the starters produce against Hawai’i, but is ready to come in.
“I hope the team plays really good and we win so they won’t even need me, but I always want to contribute for the team and help them,” Levitan said.
Freshman opposite Jonathan Bridgeman shared playing time with starter sophomore Jack Polales against BYU, and Scates is ready to put him in against Hawai’i as well.
“Jack had an outstanding game the first night against BYU, and the second night he had trouble putting the ball away so we went for Bridgeman,” Scates said. “Bridgeman is still the backup but I wouldn’t hesitate to use him.”
After playing two matches in two days last week, and doing it again this week, Scates knows that his players need time to recuperate.
“We’ve played a lot of back-to-back games early in the season, at the Santa Barbara tournament,” Scates said. “You just have to get the proper rest.”
This Tuesday, the day before the team left for Hawai’i, Scates ran a short practice to make up for the players only having one day off after the BYU series.
Despite the lack of rest time, Scates knows he will put a fresh team on the court.
“I’ll have them ready,” Scates said.
Levitan said he is excited to go to Hawai’i, and thinks that if the Bruins play the way they have played recently, they have a shot to come home with some more wins.
“I heard it’s a big arena with a lot of crowd, and I hope our team will do well,” Levitan said. “If we play like we played Northridge and (the) first game (against) BYU, I think we have a good chance.”
