After beating both Pacific and Stanford at home last week, No. 6 UCLA (7-6, 5-5) will travel up to the Bay Area for a rematch of both games this weekend.
However, this time it will be under different circumstances.
Last Friday saw a thriller volleyball match as UCLA staged a comeback win against No. 13 Pacific (7-6, 5-4), snapping their four-match winning streak.
UCLA was down 17-15 in the fourth game after giving up two previous games to Pacific and facing the imminent possibility of defeat. The Bruins then stole the momentum and fought back to win 40-38, then won Game 5 15-12 to snatch the victory from the Tigers’ hands.
After Pacific suffered the Game 5 heartbreaker, they traveled south to face No. 2 UC Irvine. This match gave Pacific another five-game fight to the finish, but this time it was in their favor: They were able to pull off the upset.
That match has been the talk of the volleyball town lately, and it certainly is on the Bruins’ minds as they go north this weekend.
“Pacific is coming off that big upset against UCI, and they definitely think they can beat anyone now,” senior Steve Klosterman said. “Especially after how close they came with us, they’re probably going to come out a lot more fired up, a lot more motivated. They didn’t like how we beat them in five like that.”
Coach Al Scates agrees with Klosterman and thinks Pacific’s strong digging will give the Bruins a challenge.
“Pacific is the real thing,” Scates said. “A lot of balls are going to come back, and we’re going to have to win the rallies.”
Last Saturday night, the Bruins also played Stanford, whom they easily swept 30-25, 30-28 and 34-32. That provided Stanford’s 13th loss of the season, but Scates doesn’t think the upcoming match will be easy.
“Stanford is on the upswing,” Scates said. “Even though they have a bad record, they’re getting better. We anticipate two tough matches this weekend.”
Although the Bruins had a somewhat rough start to the season, Scates experimented and finally found an effective lineup to produce the goods needed to win.
Since then, the Bruins have won four straight and are improving as the season progresses. Redshirt senior Paul George leads the team with 159 kills on the season and 3.24 kills a game, supplemented by freshman Garrett Muagututia’s 3.36 kills per game. But it’s obvious that a good effort from the team as a whole will only make things better.
“We’re getting better,” Scates said. “We still have a long way to go, but if we could come home with two wins this weekend, that would really be great.”