The toughest challenge the UCLA men’s volleyball team may
face this weekend could come before their matchup against No. 6
Long Beach State on Saturday.
Before visiting the 49ers, the Bruins will have to avoid a
potential roadblock when they travel to San Diego tonight to play
the UC San Diego Tritons. To put away conference doormat UCSD
(1-12, 0-9 MPSF), UCLA needs to keep its focus, something coach Al
Scates said has been a problem early in the season.
Scates’ squad is a perfect 30-0 all-time against UCSD.
“It will definitely be hard not to overlook them since we
have a tougher match the next day, but we’re just going to do
everything we can to concentrate on UCSD first,” redshirt
senior Damien Scott said.
The Bruins needed to rally to a 18-16 edge in Game 5 last season
to defeat a Triton team that went 2-24 for the season. The
lackluster performance was attributed to the team’s focus, or
lack thereof.
“Playing down to their level is usually a problem, but we
have to have a mind-set that we’re going to play hard before
we get there,” Scates said. “Last year they had all the
emotion and we were lucky to get out of there with a win, and
they’re going to be excited about playing us
again.”
Looming large after UCSD will be Long Beach State (11-4, 6-3),
which was ranked No. 1 for the first three weeks of the season when
they got off to a 7-0 start.
The 49ers gave UCLA its first loss of the season during that
streak, holding the Bruins to a .103 hitting percentage in the
championship match of the UCSB Invitational.
But the Bruins (9-6, 4-4) might be facing a different 49ers team
this time around. The team has struggled recently, losing three of
their last four matches, and the Bruins hope to be catching them at
the right time.
“It will be a tough match, but I know that we can beat
Long Beach,” Scott said. “Both teams need this win so
it will be a dogfight out there.”
Long Beach State features several standout players. Setter Tyler
Hildebrand ranks second in the nation in assists per game with
13.65 while Robert Tarr leads the country in total kills and is No.
3 in points per game (6.34).
But the player that UCLA has on its radar come Saturday is
Duncan Budinger. The senior middle blocker recently moved to the
outside hitter position and had 22 kills in 50 attempts last Friday
against Hawai’i.
“Since Budinger is not playing middle blocker anymore and
(Long Beach State) has moved in another big middle, they are going
to be a better blocking team than they were when we faced them
before,” Scates said.
While Long Beach State will likely present a tougher match for
the Bruins than UCSD, UCLA will be focusing on one match at a time
as the team tries to get its first three-game winning streak of the
season.
“It seems like we are finally going in the right
direction, so we’re not going to overlook anybody and end up
taking another step back,” freshman Sean O’Malley
said.