Game against Cal Baptist crucial for volleyball’s postseason seeding

The goals and expectations of the UCLA men’s volleyball team have changed dramatically over the last month.

No longer is this team concerned about simply qualifying for the postseason conference tournament; now its focus is on obtaining the highest seed possible in order to facilitate its run at the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation tournament title and keep its national championship hopes alive.

No. 3 UCLA (17-9, 13-7 MPSF) begins a four-game homestand to close out the regular season against No. 6 Cal Baptist (15-12, 11-10) tonight in Pauley Pavilion, in what will be a critical game for the Bruins’ postseason seeding.

The postseason format for men’s volleyball is different than other sports: The winner of the MPSF tournament – which UCLA will play in – will join two other conference champions and one at-large team as the final four teams in contention for the national championship.

The Bruins have moved into fourth place in their conference after an undefeated month of March, but the team isn’t satisfied yet.

“We want to keep climbing (in the standings), we want to get the best seed possible to set us up for a big tournament run that we know we can make,” said junior middle blocker Spencer Rowe. “Our national seeding comes into play later if we need to get an at-large bid, but obviously our goal is to win our tournament.”

UCLA plays No. 1 Brigham Young on Saturday in a highly anticipated matchup, but it must first take care of a Cal Baptist team that, despite an impressive record, is not eligible to take part in the postseason because this is its first year in the conference.

“I have a ton of respect for Cal Baptist, I think they are far underrated and I think they are one of the best teams in the country,” said coach John Speraw.

“They have two outside hitters that are some of the best in the conference; they get a lot of swings and they have a lot of range. They’re hard to stop because they can attack the ball so well.”

One of the players who will be responsible for stopping those outside hitters will be redshirt sophomore middle blocker Clayton Paullin, who remembers the problems Cal Baptist caused UCLA during their first meeting, a Bruin loss.

“They’re a great team. They just haven’t found a way to win away games, but that doesn’t mean we’re going to underestimate them at all,” Paullin said.

“I’ll be looking to take away some of their main shots. It’s the middle blocker’s responsibility a lot of the times to set up those blocks that our defense can play around.”

A subplot tonight will be the Bruins’ current winning streak, which now stands at six. The team went on two winning streaks of similar length early last season before a disappointing showing in the postseason, but players feel this year’s streak will have more significance because of its timing.

“I think it’s more important to have a winning streak at the end of the year. A streak at the beginning of the year doesn’t mean much; it just says all the other teams came out slow,” said redshirt junior libero Evan Mottram.

“We’re peaking exactly at the right time. If we can take this winning streak into the playoffs, that would be huge.”