Normally, preparing to play against one of the top-ranked teams in the country is hard enough on a coach. Now imagine coaching against that team after having led it to national championship glory the year before.
Over the last decade, the UC Irvine men’s volleyball team has ascended into the national spotlight. The program won three national championships under current UCLA coach John Speraw in the last six years and is consistently ranked among the top teams in the nation year after year.
Today the No. 4 UCLA men’s volleyball team (7-4, 3-2) will take on Speraw’s previous team, No. 3 UC Irvine (6-3, 3-3), in a highly anticipated early season conference game.
While the game may carry some added emotional weight for Speraw, he’s making sure to keep the focus on his players and how they can use this game to build off of their first sweep of the season, a straight-set victory over No. 14 Pacific (3-3, 2-3) two days ago.
“I’m looking forward to seeing if this team can continue to play with the same competitive attitude they had (against Pacific),” Speraw said. “Hopefully we can play with the same kind of poise because certainly Irvine will push us. They’re a very good team so I’m curious to see how we stand against a team of that caliber.”
This isn’t the first time the UCLA will face UC Irvine this year; the Anteaters won the first meeting less than a month ago in a marathon match where the Bruins fought back from a two-set deficit to tie the contest, but they ultimately couldn’t complete the rally in the fifth.
Back then the occasion was the Asics Invitational tournament. Now, the occasion is the biggest conference game for each team so far this season.
While the result of the first meeting may not have been of great particular importance, having previous experience against this opponent could be vital.
“(We learned from the last meeting) that we really need to always play as a team against them,” said redshirt sophomore middle blocker Clayton Paullin. “I think we’re just looking forward to coming together and playing a great game.”
UCLA’s dominating performance on Sunday afternoon against Pacific could also play a role in this match. After what may have been their best all-around match of the season, in which the Bruins only committed 13 service errors, spirits are figured to be soaring come game-time tonight.
“(Sweeping Pacific) definitely helps with our confidence, we’re definitely going into this next match against UCI with our heads up and ready to do the same to them,” said redshirt junior outside hitter Dane Worley.
“If we play the way we played (against Pacific) then I don’t think we’re going to have any problems keeping it going.”