After running into its toughest test of the 2016 season Wednesday night against No. 2 Long Beach State, the top-ranked UCLA men’s volleyball team will face another hungry foe Friday in Pauley Pavilion.
The Bruins (9-0, 5-0 Mountain Pacific Sports Federation) will try to keep their unbeaten season alive against the No. 12 Cal State Northridge Matadors (7-1, 2-1) – a team that will be looking to bounce back from its first loss of the season.
CSUN fell in straight sets to No. 11 UC Santa Barbara Wednesday night, but UCLA coach John Speraw knows his team’s next opponent will be a tough matchup.
“They haven’t played many conference games yet (but) they’re serving really well right now, so we have to come in and pass,” Speraw said.
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While Northridge has only played three matches in the hyper-competitive MPSF, the Matadors have already shown themselves to be a quality opponent early in the year.
“CSUN is an unreal team, we’re just going to go back and watch some video. … Hopefully we can come out on top again,” said freshman setter/hitter Micah Ma’a after UCLA’s comeback win Wednesday.
The Bruins dropped the first two sets Wednesday against the 49ers, but battled back to force a fifth set. UCLA narrowly won the final set 15-13 on a service ace from Ma’a.
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Last season, the Bruins swept the season series against CSUN, with 3-1 victories both at Pauley Pavilion and away at Northridge.
The Matadors are led by junior outside hitter Jakub Ciesla, who has registered a team-high 82 kills this year. Freshman setter Sam Porter is the clear favorite to set up kills for the Matadors. Although it is his first year, he has recorded 87 percent of Northridge’s assists, with 257 to his name so far.
Bruin junior middle blocker Mitch Stahl warned about the dangers of overthinking in preparation.
“We can’t think too far ahead,” Stahl said. “We’ve got Northridge now; we’re onto the first point of that set. We’ve gotta take care of business day in and day out, (and) have that kind of resilience that no one is going to beat us.”
The Bruins have undeniably had a very successful start to the season. However, junior setter Hagen Smith said UCLA must stay grounded and focused in order to hold onto its perfect record.
“This game is over after tonight,” Smith said on Wednesday. “It’s a whole new demon coming up.”