Cal State Northridge has UCLA’s number.
The Matadors have beat the Bruins in four straight matches, including a four-set victory Friday at the UC Santa Barbara Collegiate Invitational.
The No. 8 Bruins (1-2), sorely lacking a libero and the ability to pass effectively, begin the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation season tonight as they host the No. 2 Matadors (3-0).
After losing sophomore libero Tom Hastings to academic ineligibility, sophomore back-up libero Jeremy Casebeer to knee surgery, and redshirt junior outside hitter Jeff Woodley to a shoulder injury, coach Al Scates has been scouring his team for an effective passer.
“Right now, we can’t pass well enough to run an offense,” Scates said. “We can score fine when we’re serving, but right now we have to shore up our passing.”
As Scates explained, the main problem with lacking an effective libero is that it makes it more difficult to set the ball to the middle blockers. The only option for attacking is to come from the outside, which opponents easily counter by loading up two or three blockers.
As a result of this setup, hitting percentages decline.
Against Northridge at the UCSB Invitational, the Bruins squeaked a measly .130 hitting percentage. The Bruins outblocked the Matadors 15-8, in a strong performance by the Bruin blockers despite their lack of attacking opportunities.
Despite the solid blocking, however, the hole at libero hurt. Other teams’ serving statistics have shot up as a result.
“Teams are acing us,” Scates said. “We’re having problems we didn’t have when Thomas Hastings was our libero. We went from maybe 5 percent errors to 12 or 13 (percent).”
In their two losses at the UCSB tournament, the Bruins suffered a total of 23 aces against.
With little time between the UCSB Invitational and tonight’s match against the Matadors, it seems the Bruins will be unable to find an effective solution to their passing problem.
Scates added that the coaching staff is looking into the team’s options at libero. The current starter stands as redshirt sophomore Teddy Goetz, but Scates is looking at walk-on freshman Kristian Kuld, freshman Jamey Ker, who he had planned on redshirting this year in preparation to play outside hitter, and freshman Kyle Caldwell, who was a setter in high school but played opposite for the junior national team.
“We threw (Caldwell) in against Irvine to see if he could pass,” Scates said. “He wasn’t bad, and now we’re teaching him how to pass.”
Caldwell stayed after practice Monday to work on passing with a serving machine.
The rest of the Bruins have also been working on their passing technique for tonight’s match. Assistant coach Brian Rofer was evaluating each of the passes the Bruins took at practice on Monday.
Junior setter Kevin Ker remained optimistic about the team’s chances against the Matadors.
“For some reason we always just break down halfway through the game,” Ker said. “We can’t get down on ourselves. We’ve got to fire up every time something good happens and keep the enthusiasm up.”
Junior outside hitter Garrett Muagututia agreed. He said the team learned lessons from the UCSB Invitational.
“So far, it’s four times in a row. Yeah, they (Northridge) got our number,” Muagututia said. “I think that with a few little tweaks in our offense and defense we’ll be fine.”
Despite the difficulties early in the season, Scates explained that if the team makes the MPSF playoffs and Hastings regains his eligibility, the team’s offense will be able to execute.
With a team that was ranked second in the nation before the season, a healthy Hastings should take the Bruins on a deep playoff run, Scates said.