When UCLA men’s volleyball faced off against UC Santa Barbara two weeks ago, the Bruins stumbled out of the gate and had to overcome a two-set deficit to win the match.
The slow start was largely overlooked – it was the first game of a brand-new season under a brand-new coach, and the Bruins had earned an impressive and resilient win on a rival’s home turf. Now slow starts are no longer something to sneeze at. They’ve become a trend for No. 5 UCLA (5-3, 1-1), which heads north today to play at No. 8 UCSB (3-2, 1-1) for the second time this season.
In the first meeting, UCLA was able to survive the two-set hole it dug for itself, but coach John Speraw knows his team can’t afford to come out flat and expect to win this time around.
“We have to know that they’re going to be a team that’s not going to let up this time,” Speraw said. “They got off to a really fast start last time but we managed to come back. We need to make sure that we’re the ones to start out fast.”
The Bruins are coming off their first losing streak of the season after falling to Long Beach State Tuesday night at Pauley Pavilion, their second straight loss.
Speraw made some tweaks to the starting lineup against Long Beach to fill in for a number of regulars who were not present for undisclosed reasons. Lineup changes have been common for the Bruins this year and, overall, the team has managed to adjust well.
“Every single match this season we’ve had a different lineup and we’ve been a winning ball club so far, but we’ve been winning while not playing our best volleyball,” said junior middle blocker Spencer Rowe.
“It’s great to win those matches that we’ve been winning, but also it’s going be even better when we’re playing our best volleyball.”
For the time being, lineup changes will endure. It will be interesting to see how the Bruins cope without the help of a couple of shoo-in starters for what could be an extended period of time, especially considering the tough stretch coming up in the schedule. Today will be the first game in a three-game road trip, with the next home opponent for UCLA being defending national champion UC Irvine.
For now, the focus is on the Gauchos.
“Santa Barbara is a good team, we beat them in five last time but they’re much improved,” said junior outside hitter Robart Page.
“When we saw them the first time they were kind of a mess, but they’ve really come together. We’re going to have to compete if we want to win that game.”
Email Villalobos at lvillalobos@media.ucla.edu.