The UCLA men’s volleyball team wrapped up its preseason two weekends ago at the third annual SAC Tournament held in the former Men’s Gym on campus.
The Bruins fell to Cal State Northridge in four games (30-28, 25-30, 21-30, 27-30) in the final match.
“We couldn’t handle their serves,” coach Al Scates said. “At this stage in the season Northridge practices an hour a day on serving as hard as they can and 45 minutes on passing … Their passing and serving skills are better than those of other teams at this point.”
Junior outside hitter Garrett Muagututia paced the team against the Matadors with 17 kills. Redshirt junior Brett Perrine added 15 kills.
“The game showed that we have things we need to work on,” Muagututia said. “It was a humbling experience against Northridge.”
In the early match that same day, UCLA swept UC Santa Barbara 33-31, 30-23, 30-28.
Perrine tallied 14 kills followed by redshirt freshman Jack Polales with nine kills.
“The guys that didn’t play (against Long Beach) should have been a weaker team but they beat Santa Barbara’s first team,” Scates said. “I was quite thrilled with the whole thing at that point.”
UCLA rolled past Long Beach State in its first match of the tournament, defeating the 49ers 30-19, 30-16, 30-20.
Senior opposite Sean O’Malley, who was the MVP of the Calgary Tournament in October, recorded a team-high 13 kills. Muagututia and sophomore quick hitter Weston Dunlap were right behind with 12 kills each.
Serving carried the Bruins as the team had 12 aces, including seven from junior setter Kevin Ker.
“Preseason tournaments are always exciting,” Ker said. “It’s fun to break the ice for the new season. Overall I felt we played pretty good.”
The team is on break until Dec. 29 as they are not allowed to practice as a team by the NCAA. Their next game is in January at the UCSB Collegiate Tournament, where they will look to avenge their lost to Northridge.
SOLID ROTATION: After getting a chance to see the team play against good competition, Scates is pleased to see the depth of his team at every position.
“We have some depth in middle, outside and setter,” Scates said. “We have great depth right now. There’s not a great deal of difference between the first team and second team.”
In the middle, Dunlap and freshman Nick Vogel look to be the top two so far with redshirt senior D.J. Stromath pushing for a starting role.
Outside is stacked with Muagututia, Perrine, O’Malley Polales and redshirt sophomore Teddy Goetz who moved from the middle. Freshman Kyle Caldwell heads the opposite position with senior Ryan Ratelle behind him. Ker and senior Matt Wade will each see time at setter as both gained a lot of experience last season.
At libero, there is a hole to fill after the departure of three-time All-American Tony Ker. Sophomore Tom Hastings is the frontrunner for that as sophomore Jeremy Casebeer is out after knee surgery.
“We have a pretty good bench,” Muagututia said. “They bring a lot of fire which is what we need when one of our starters isn’t performing. It will help later on in the long season when people are tired.”
The talented roster makes practices a lot more interesting and will bring confidence during games.
“If someone is not performing well on first court, we will have a guy come up,” Ker said. “It makes you want to work that much harder in practice. We know we can depend on bench players.”
SOCAL SIGNEES: Scates announced the signing of four players for next year.
The four high school athletes, all hailing from Southern California, will enroll in fall 2009.
Jonathan Bridgeman is a 6-8 opposite from Santa Ynez (Santa Ynez Valley Union High School). Noah Davisson, a 6-5 outside hitter, comes from Valencia (Valencia High School). Two outside hitters/opposites, Ryan Kachold (Quartz Hill High School, Quartz Hill) and Dane Worley (Foothill High School, Tustin) will join the 2009 recruits.