Men’s volleyball to play 1st game of 2020 season following injury-riddled 2019

After falling victim to the injury bug and missing out on the postseason in 2019, the Bruins will start their new campaign out East.

No. 2 UCLA men’s volleyball will face Daemen College in its season opener at the Lumsden Gymnasium in Amherst, New York, on Thursday. This game marks the start of a four-game road trip away from Pauley Pavilion to open the 2020 season.

Last season, the Bruins would have qualified for the NCAA tournament had they won the MPSF tournament. UCLA fell just short after losing to rival USC in the semifinals.

This year, the Bruins will start the season with some new faces joining the squad. Along with the four redshirt freshmen on the roster, eight true freshmen will make their debuts in blue and gold under coach John Speraw this year.

Despite being the only individual in NCAA history to win a national championship as a player, assistant coach and head coach, Speraw has yet to bring a title home to Westwood in his seven seasons at the helm.

Speraw’s squad was knocking on the door of bucking that trend in 2018, but UCLA fell to Long Beach State in the championship game at home. The Bruins were unable to make it that far in 2019, however, because of injuries going into the later stages of the schedule.

In March, then-junior outside hitter Austin Matautia, – who averaged 2.41 kills per set through 20 matches played – was ruled out for the remainder of the season. Another loss that hurt the Bruins’ was a back injury that sidelined then-senior outside hitter Dylan Missry for 11 games, and then-redshirt junior opposite Brandon Rattray was out for three matches with a toe injury.

While the injuries affected the team in the latter half of the season, they also opened the door for then-redshirt sophomore outside hitter Sam Kobrine. Kobrine filled in for Matautia and Missry and posted 130 kills and 13 aces before being sidelined himself by illness in March.

But even with the injuries, UCLA managed to post a 10-1 record at home last season. That success didn’t follow the Bruins on the road, however, as they went .500 in 14 road games, losing four of those seven games in five sets.

This past week, the Bruins played three exhibition games in Canada. UCLA dropped the first two games against Ryerson University and Trinity Western University. It then went on to get a victory against the University of Alberta.

After its encounter with Daemen College, UCLA will head to Virginia for its second game of this road trip to take on George Mason on Saturday.