Men’s volleyball determined to claim victory over BYU in road game
Freshman outside hitter Alex Knight leads No. 7 UCLA men’s volleyball with 79 kills this season. He is just one of two Bruins to play in all 29 sets, alongside senior outside hitter Austin Matautia. (Samuel In/Daily Bruin senior staff)
Men's volleyball
No. 2 BYU
Thursday, 6 p.m.
Provo, Utah
BYUTV
By Jack Perez
Feb. 6, 2020 1:18 a.m.
The Bruins are headed to the Beehive State, looking for their first win there since 2009.
No. 7 UCLA men’s volleyball (5-3) will open up Mountain Pacific Sports Federation play against No. 2 BYU (10-0) on Thursday at the Smith Fieldhouse in Provo, Utah. The two teams split their two matchups last season, with the home team winning each time. The Bruins won the first match Feb. 9, 2019, with a score of 16-25, 25-14, 25-19, 25-18.
The Cougars clawed back in the rematch, coming from two sets down to win by a final score of 30-32, 21-25, 25-20, 25-16, 17-15. The 32 points in the first set were the most scored by the Bruins in any set during the 2019 season.
Coach John Speraw said the team’s most recent victory against then-No. 4 Long Beach State could help propel UCLA as it moves into tough road games.
“When we prepare in a really focused way and are emotionally ready to compete at our best, we can win matches against good teams on the road,” Speraw said. “Hopefully the knowledge we can do that will give us some confidence.”
UCLA’s upset victory over Long Beach State was the Beach’s first loss of the season. Before that, the Bruins had lost two of their last three matches against ranked opponents.
Freshman outside hitter Alex Knight said he believes the Bruins have played harder against teams that are bigger threats to them.
“Because Long Beach was ranked higher than us, I think when we know when an opponent is doing well or having a good season, that motivates us to beat them even more,” Knight said. “That helped us against Long Beach and will help us in the BYU game.”
The Cougars have found a way to win every time out in 2020 so far. BYU has two wins over both No. 4 UC Irvine and No. 3 UCSB in their first 10 contests and have only been pushed to a fifth set once this year.
Freshman setter/opposite Mads Kyed Jensen said the Bruins’ focus heading into their last match was better than it has been earlier in the season, and they have the same mindset heading into the match against the Cougars.
“Against Long Beach, we did a really good job scouting them and setting up the game plan and being 100% certain of what we’re doing,” Kyed Jensen said. “If we do the same against BYU, which I’m positive we can, we’ll have a good shot.”
UCLA could be without senior middle blocker Daenan Gyimah, who played in all nine sets against the Cougars last season.
He led the Bruins with 24 kills over those two matches combined but also committed 10 serving errors. Gyimah has missed the past five matches for undisclosed reasons after playing in every set over the first three matches of the year.
The Bruins and Cougars will first serve Thursday at 6 p.m.