There is a lot more hanging on tonight’s match for the UCLA men’s volleyball team than a storied rivalry.
The Bruins have been aching for a meaningful win to raise them in the MPSF standings, and tonight is their chance.
No. 9 UCLA (12-14, 8-11 MPSF) will host its final home match of the season, as No. 4 USC (16-8, 12-7) comes in pushing for a higher seeding in the MPSF tournament.
Coming off a loss to top-ranked Pepperdine, the Bruins, along with Long Beach State and UC San Diego, remain in the hunt for one of the two final playoff spots. The Trojans recently fell to No. 2 UC Irvine, dropping to fifth in the conference. Because the top four finishers in the conference each are awarded a home game in their quarterfinal match, USC will keep pushing for late-season wins.
“Wins are pretty hard to come by when you’re playing hard teams like this,” freshman quick hitter Thomas Amberg said. “We are in a really bad spot for MPSF right now because there are only two spots for (three) teams, so it’s a really close race between us, UCSD, and Long Beach State.”
On top of the fight for a playoff spot, the Bruins enter the match fighting for a respectable win over a higher-ranked team, Lexus Gauntlet points, a senior night victory and bragging rights over the Trojans.
“It would be great for … the seniors since it is senior night,” Amberg said. “I would like nothing more than to get a win for (the seniors) at their last home game because they’ve worked so hard for four or five years.”
The Bruins will be honoring seniors Sean O’Malley, Matt Wade, D.J. Stromath, Jamie Diefenbach, and Ryan Ratelle.
But the real focus of tonight’s match will be on building a solid foundation for the conference tournament. The winner of the tournament gets an automatic bid to the NCAA Final Four.
“It’s just important to win so we can get into the league playoffs,” coach Al Scates said. “We’ve been getting better. We won four out of the last six, and we have to keep getting better.”
Scates also said that since the Bruins are now tied with Long Beach State and sit only one match ahead of UC San Diego, a win tonight is even more critical because the two schools own the tiebreak over the Bruins.
The intensity of the match will also be critical as UCLA players hope to use the home crowd to their advantage.
“I’m hoping a lot of people come out … and just get this place loud,” freshman quick hitter Nick Vogel said.
With so much of volleyball coming from momentum and crowd energy, players will look to an excited home crowd for support.
“Just more intensity on the court and getting big support from the fans is a big part of volleyball,” Amberg said. “Feeding off the energy of the crowd is … one of the most important parts.”
Around the MPSF: Tonight will be a busy night around the conference as eight of the other 10 teams in the conference will be in action.
BYU begins a weekend series against Stanford, while Cal State Northridge visits UC San Diego. UC Santa Barbara will visit Long Beach State, and Hawaii’ begins its series against visiting Pacific.
Pepperdine and UC Irvine, neither of which are playing tonight, will face off as the top two teams in the conference Saturday night.
Also Saturday night, BYU will complete its series at Stanford and Pacific will complete its series with Hawaii’. Cal State Northridge will visit Long Beach State and UC Santa Barbara will visit UC San Diego.