Pauley Pavilion will host one more UCLA home game this year. But only barely.
The fourth-seeded men’s volleyball team is currently preparing to host fifth-seeded Pepperdine on Saturday night in the quarterfinals of the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation’s playoffs.
UCLA finished the regular season in a three-way tie for fourth with Pepperdine and Stanford and earned a first-round home game by virtue of a tiebreaker.
The Bruins (17-13, 12-10 MPSF) are led by their sole senior, libero Tony Ker, who recently broke the NCAA record for career digs. The Bruin squad also has a number of players left from their 2006 championship team. Coupled with a league-most 30 matches played, the Bruins will bring a wealth of experience to the postseason.
“I keep saying to everyone, this team has the ability to beat anyone in the country,” Ker said. “It’s all mental right now, it’s all about preparation and … our mindset going into that game.”
With five days of practice this week, the Bruins will have plenty of time to prepare and allow injured players extra time to heal up.
The Bruins boast three quality middle blockers in Jamie Diefenbach, D.J. Stromath and Brett Perrine. Outside hitters Garrett Muagututia and Sean O’Malley hit a combined 7.68 kills per game.
This season against the Waves, the Bruins won 3-2 at Pepperdine and 3-1 in Pauley, but in both matches Pepperdine was without opposite Paul Carroll, who leads the nation in kills and points, takes over 40 percent of the Waves’ attacks, and has one of the best serves in the country.
“We haven’t seen Carroll, we know they are going to be a lot stronger with Carroll,” UCLA coach Al Scates said. “He’s just a fantastic player so we’re going to have to slow him down.”
No. 5 Pepperdine (13-10, 12-10 MPSF) would have hosted a quarterfinal match until losing to an ailing Hawai’i squad in their season finale dropped them into the tie with UCLA and Stanford. While Pepperdine held the tiebreaker over Stanford, the Bruins’ season sweep of the waves earned them the home match.
Scates said he was glad to be playing in Pauley because it meant avoiding Pepperdine’s Firestone Fieldhouse, which has unusually low rafters in which a high dig can get caught.
The winner of the quarterfinal match will move on to play top-seeded Long Beach State.
The No. 1 49ers (23-5, 18-4 MPSF), won the MPSF regular season, earning them 11 days off before that semifinal matchup.
The Bruins lost at home to the 49ers, 3-1, but upset them at Long Beach, 3-1.
Second-seeded BYU (23-4, 18-4 MPSF) got off to a fast start this season, winning their first 12 matches and holding the No. 1 ranking for much of the season.
But amidst controversy over NCAA violations, the Cougars dropped three straight matches: two at Long Beach State and one at UCLA. The Cougars were also swept at home by Stanford.
Led in the middle by Russell Holmes, who hits .461 and averages 1.50 blocks per game, the Cougars bring a strong defense, allowing a league-best clip of .232.
BYU will host the winner of the play-in match between eight-seeded USC and seven-seeded UC Irvine.
The defending NCAA champion No. 7 UC Irvine Anteaters (15-14, 11-11 MPSF) had a weak start in conference play, opening 1-3. They never recovered fully and essentially fell into obscurity this season.
However, with middle blocker Aaron Harrell and outside hitter Kevin Carroll, who average 1.28 blocks per game each, the Anteaters generally keep their opponents’ hitting percentages low.
Also, the Bren Center has proven to be a friendly arena, and the Anteaters defeated Northridge and Long Beach State there. But the only match they will host is the play-in against the Trojans.
No. 8 seed USC (13-15, 10-12 MPSF) claimed one victory over Stanford and Pepperdine and two over UCLA, but lost twice to every other team in the playoffs.
The Trojans have no other considerable wins to their credit but did win four of their 10 conference wins on the road.
Juan Figueroa, the Trojans’ kills leader with 4.41 per game, is eighth in the conference and earned player of the week honors last week.
Neither team really has enough firepower to defeat the Cougars in Provo, where BYU’s only losses were the two to Stanford.
The No. 3 seed Matadors (22-6, 17-5 MPSF), with only one home loss this season and six home sweeps, will likely down visiting No. 6 seed Stanford in the quarterfinals. After starting a mediocre 6-4, CSUN won 14 straight matches, including a five-game match at Long Beach State.
In their season finale, the Matadors were unable to finish a season sweep of the conference’s top seed, losing to Long Beach State in three games.
The No. 6 Cardinal were the biggest surprise of the season. Coming off a 2-20 season, many projected the Cardinal to miss the playoffs again.
The Cardinal, however, come into the playoffs with momentum from wins over UCLA and UC Irvine. Stanford, however, is last in the league in blocks and second to last in kills.