Riding the momentum from another victory over the nation’s top team, the UCLA men’s volleyball team welcomes UC San Diego, a squad sitting near the bottom of the conference standings, to Pauley Pavilion tonight.
The Bruins, who vaulted up to No. 3 in this week’s AVCA rankings, will be seeing the No. 14 Tritons for the second time this year after playing them at the preseason UCSB collegiate tournament, a match UCLA won in five sets. Coach Al Scates is adamant that the Bruins aren’t taking this match lightly.
“They’re a very formidable team. … They beat us last year at their place 3-0, so they’re going to come in here full of confidence and we better be ready to play,” Scates said.
Scates added that preparing hard for every team is essential because there’s a high level of parity in the MPSF this year, attributable to the presence of so many talented teams.
“There’s going to be a lot of different number one teams. Pepperdine is No. 1 this week. USC has been No. 1. There’s going to be a lot of losses in this league,” he said.
Sophomore quick hitter Thomas Amberg echoed the thoughts of his coach.
“With our team, we’ve got a pretty good mindset this year that every game counts, because we know that every team in the MPSF is a good team. You look at Irvine beating Northridge last week too, and Irvine was one of the last place teams. You just have to look at it from that perspective and take away that every team is a good team,” Amberg said.
UCSD features one of the most talented middle-blocking tandems in the nation, with redshirt freshman Cyrus Kiani entering tonight’s match hitting at a .443 clip and junior Calvin Ross averaging 1.33 blocks per game. Formidable outside hitter Jason Spangler is one of UCSD’s all-time greats, as he recently became UCSD’s all time leader in kills.
Sophomore quick hitter Nick Vogel, who finished with 14 kills in Friday’s win against CSUN, will be counted on to help slow down the Tritons’ duo in the middle.
“We get a lot of training on how to block another middle,” Vogel said. “Calvin (Ross) is a pretty big guy and (Cyrus Kiani) hits for great percentages, so we need to make sure that we neutralize him as a threat.”
Vogel also mentioned that UCSD places a large emphasis on defense and that the Bruins need to stay levelheaded on offense.
“They’re a very motivated team and they play a lot of defense, so we have to be prepared for them to dig a lot of balls and sustain some long rallies,” he said. “It can get a little aggravating when you hit a good ball and they come up with it on the other side so we’ve got to stay on top of them the whole match and not get discouraged.”