Just because a team is ranked No. 1 in the nation does not mean
all of its victories come easily.
The UCLA men’s volleyball team learned that earlier this
year, when the Bruins won in a five-game thriller against then-No.
4 Cal State Northridge in the championship game of the UCSB
Elephant Bar Classic.
This time, No. 1 UCLA hopes it won’t take that long to
dispose of the now-No. 8 CSUN team when it plays the Matadors in
Northridge tonight.
Since their first meeting, the Bruins have ascended up the
rankings while CSUN has spiraled down them.
UCLA has been ranked No. 1 for three consecutive weeks and is
coming off a split against defending champion BYU. The Bruins are
confident they will put on a much better exhibition than the first
time they played the Matadors.
“The further we get into the season, the better we
get,” Damien Scott said.
The Matadors, meanwhile, have been hit by the injury bug, losing
two of their top hitters, and as a result, they have a 2-4 record
in their last six matches.
However, CSUN is coming off an impressive win against No. 10
Stanford and looks to have settled on a consistent lineup entering
tonight’s match.
“They’ve been working on lineup changes,” UCLA
assistant coach Brian Rofer said. “It seems as though
they’ve found one that works.”
But even with a newfound lineup and a win against a good team,
Northridge isn’t exactly causing UCLA to shake in its boots.
The Bruins boast what is considered one of the deepest teams in the
country, and can be expected to play any of its top 10 players on
any given night.
The team’s depth was on full display this past weekend as
UCLA split a pair of matches with No. 3 BYU. In Utah, setter Gaby
Acevedo struggled in the first match and was replaced by Dennis
Gonzalez in the second match, which the Bruins swept 3-0.
The situation epitomized the theme of UCLA’s season thus
far. UCLA coach Al Scates, unlike any of his coaching peers, has
the luxury of knowing that if a starter is not playing to his
capacity, the player that replaces him will be just as good as the
first had been.
Consequently, not many players in the collegiate ranks need to
be looking over their shoulder constantly, knowing that a bad day,
or perhaps even a bad play, may bump them onto the bench.
“I don’t even call our bench players the second team
anymore,” Scates said. “I just refer to them as team
1A.”
“We have a roster full of All-Americans, which is a cause
for competition during practice,” Scott said.
“That is what makes us so much better.”