UCLA volleyball to face highly ranked Cal Baptist, BYU

UCLA is hoping that history repeats itself this week when it faces two highly ranked opponents, No. 12 Cal Baptist and No. 1 BYU.

In its last meeting with each of these schools, UCLA (8-5, 4-3 Mountain Pacific Sports Federation) came away with a win.

Coach John Speraw, however, said the upcoming games will be more challenging, as the competition has become a lot stronger.

UCLA is coming off a win and tonight, the team faces Cal Baptist on the road for the first time.

“We respect everything that program is doing right now,” Speraw said. “We’re going to have to go and play very good volleyball to beat that team.”

The Bruins are now halfway through their season and have struggled with inconsistency and unforced errors.

This was especially apparent against UC Irvine last Tuesday, when UCLA committed 19 service errors en route to a tough five-set loss.

In its most recent match against UCSD, however, UCLA improved its serving and did not commit as many errors.

Junior outside hitter Gonzalo Quiroga, in particular, has had strong performances recently, leading the Bruins in kills in their last two matches.

But these upcoming games, he said, are much more significant than their win over the UCSD Tritons.

“This win will help us a lot. (Cal Baptist) has a really good team, so it’s going to be a tough one. Then we have BYU, who are No. 1,” Quiroga said.

With key games and tournaments coming up, players said they are using each game as an opportunity to improve.

“Every day we come in and try to get better,” said junior middle blocker Spencer Rowe. “It’s a process and a race to see who can be better by the end of the season.”

After tonight’s match, UCLA will head to Provo, Utah, to face BYU on Saturday.

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