Adversity builds character.

But only time will tell if adversity can also serve as motivation to rebuild a winning streak.

Starting nearly from scratch, No. 2 UCLA men’s volleyball (17-4, 7-1 MPSF) will play No. 7 BYU (17-7, 5-3) in back-to-back conference matches Friday and Saturday at Pauley Pavilion. The contests will give the Bruins an opportunity to rebuild their 10-game win streak after losing it getting swept by then-No. 13 Grand Canyon last week.

The Bruins enter the affair on the heels of one of their least efficient matches of the season. Redshirt junior outside hitter Cooper Robinson – who ranks 12th in the nation with a .388 hitting percentage – posted a .000 clip in the Bruins’ first matchup against the Antelopes.

Falling into that same trend, UCLA as a squad garnered its lowest hitting percentage of the 2025 campaign, posting a .156 clip despite ranking fourth nationally in hitting percentage across the season with .359.

Along with offensive inefficiencies, the Bruins also battled a bout of sickness in the two-game series against GCU, one they have since recovered from.

“We saw that our team was a little bit falling apart due to sicknesses and injuries, but this week of practice has been great. We’ve been getting together. We’ve been nailing down new systems,” said redshirt junior libero Matthew Aziz. “This new lineup with our four pin hitters has been great, and BYU is a great team, and if we want to beat them, we have to be great and we have to be consistent.”

While the Bruins followed their performance with a five-set victory over the Lopes, the series against the Cougars will indicate whether the loss was just a fluke or a symptom of something more. The Cougars enter the series on a two-game win streak and having won four out of their last five, but they also saw a similar demise as the Bruins, getting swept by the Lopes on March 22.

While UCLA boasts the top rank in the MPSF, both teams maintain the same overall win count of 17. However, UCLA is 7-1 when playing at home, with its sole loss coming from top-ranked Long Beach State on Feb. 12.

Despite UCLA’s overall higher ranking, BYU will test its defensive fortitude courtesy of Keoni Thiim. The BYU outside hitter ranks fifth in the conference in kills, while Robinson sits just one spot behind, tied for sixth. Thiim also ranks 11th in the nation in aces per set and 24th in kills per set – one spot above Robinson in the latter.

Thiim’s season highs beat out Robinson in kills and points, but they both share a matching season-high six aces.

While Thiim poses a threat from the pins, the Cougars are also dangerous from beyond the service line.

“We’ve got work to do on our side of the net,” said coach John Hawks. “BYU is worth all our respect.”

UCLA notched a season-high 42 service errors in its last match, while BYU only blundered 16 of its serves in its most recent match against Stanford.

A high number of service errors is nothing new for the Bruins, however.

The first match against GCU saw UCLA commit 21 service errors with only two aces to show for its efforts. In its two defeats to Long Beach State, UCLA saw several points lost at the service line, with the Bruins surrendering 26 points for three aces in the first match and 15 points for one ace in the second.

“We are not going to underestimate our opponents going forward,” said junior middle blocker Cameron Thorne. “Just do our scout these next couple of days and listen to our coaches and hopefully come out with some wins.”