The biggest challenge the UCLA men’s volleyball team will
face when it matches up against the Trojans tonight at USC’s
North Gym is not to underestimate its opponent.
Although it has beaten USC 12 consecutive times, the Bruins feel
they have to play with as much intensity as they did in
Tuesday’s win over No. 4 Penn State.
With their only conference victory coming against winless UC San
Diego, the Trojans (5-16, 1-12 Mountain Pacific Sports Federation)
don’t appear to present much of a challenge. But the Bruins
(17-2, 12-2) know better than to take USC lightly.
“We just have to really stay focused and respect the fact
that they gave us a tough four-game match at our place,” UCLA
coach Al Scates said. “As long as we understand that USC is a
dangerous team and that we have to take care of them, we’ll
be fine.”
With the probable return of Trojans Blake Tippett and setter
Jimmy Killian, who have both missed recent games with injuries, USC
will be looking to end its eight-game losing streak. Tippett and
Killian’s return to the court, coupled with the continued
outstanding play of Joao Grangeiro, should present UCLA with a much
improved USC team from the last time they met.
“Grangeiro has a tremendous jump serve, and we have to
pass well to counter it,” Scates said. “The biggest
thing we have to do is take care of their middles. We have to deal
with one-on-one blocking since they are going to set very fast, and
our middle blocker won’t be able to get to their hitter.
Also, Tippett’s always a threat.”
In the teams’ first meeting back on Jan. 21, UCLA secured
a hard-fought 3-1 victory. Going into tonight’s match,
however, the Bruins have adopted a new mind-set and pledge they
will not overlook the Trojans.
Tonight’s match is also crucial for UCLA’s goal to
secure homecourt advantage throughout the playoffs. While the
Bruins are close to claiming first place in the conference, they
know that any potential slip-ups will cost them a realistic shot of
playing all of their postseason matches in Pauley Pavilion.
“We know that we have to win the rest of our matches to
have a good shot at hosting the playoffs, so we’re going to
play with the same intensity that we have for every match,”
senior Kris Kraushaar said.
“It is harder to get excited when playing against
struggling teams, but we’re just going to focus on our play.
We need solid serving because serving has kept us in the game
lately. We’ve struggled when the serves aren’t
there.”
Sandwiched between tough matches against Penn State and No. 2
Pepperdine on Saturday, the Bruins know it’s tempting to look
ahead, but realize that they must maintain their focus on the game
at hand..
“If we play well, we’ll beat this team,”
Scates said. “That’s all there is to it. We just have
to stay focused. If we think about USC and don’t look ahead
to Pepperdine, we’ll win.”