Halfway through its four-game road trip, the UCLA men’s volleyball team still appears to be searching for consistency.
The No. 8 Bruins (7-6, 4-3 MPSF) return to their Mountain Pacific Sports Federation conference schedule, as they travel to Malibu tonight to face No. 3 Pepperdine (7-1, 6-1 MPSF). The Waves suffered their first loss of the season Friday night to No. 7 Stanford in Palo Alto.
Pepperdine leads the conference with its powerful offensive attack. The Waves boast the highest hitting percentage in the MPSF at 0.334 and are led by opposite hitter Paul Carroll. The senior from Australia averages 5.9 kills per game. Sophomore setter Kasey Crider is also No. 1 in the conference with 13.83 assists per game.
The Bruins finally earned their first win-streak of the season two weeks ago but saw it quickly snap this past weekend when they travelled to Illinois for a two-match set.
UCLA lost to Lewis last Friday in five games and once again went the distance to defeat Loyola University in five.
Splitting the midwest games continued the team’s season-long trend of having difficulty winning more than one game in a row. The Bruins have won alternating games all season with the exception of two weekends ago when they upset Stanford and then beat Pacific.
Tonight the Bruins may be without junior outside hitter Garrett Muagututia. He suffered an ankle sprain against Lewis and sophomore Teddy Goetz filled in at his position for the match against Loyola.
With Muagututia hurt, UCLA will turn to senior opposite Sean O’Malley to keep putting balls away as he is second on the team with 3.33 kills per game. Redshirt freshman opposite Jack Polales paces the team with 3.56 kpg.
Other youngsters have stepped up nicely for the Bruins. Freshmen Nick Vogel has made an immediate impact at the quick hitter position along with fellow freshman Thomas Amberg.
Serving has been a bright spot for the team as they have been torching teams from the end line as of late. The Bruins racked up five aces while only managing 18 errors against Loyola.
UCLA will have two away games this week, with the latter at USC on Friday night. Wins on their opponents’ courts have been hard to come by as the team is only 1-3 on the road, with the only win being their most recent match.