The UCLA men’s volleyball team has had one opportunity this season to play back-to-back matches against the same opponent. The first time, the Bruins split the series, failing to come away with both wins.
That was earlier in the season against then-No. 5 Hawaii. Now, No. 4 UCLA (16-3, 12-3 Mountain Pacific Sports Federation) has that chance again at No. 9 UC Santa Barbara (13-7, 9-6) Friday night, with the teams coming off of a four-set Bruin victory at the John Wooden Center on Wednesday night.
Despite the same opponent, the Bruins are prepared for a much different type of night in Santa Barbara.
“It’s about not expecting it to be the same match,” said coach John Speraw on Wednesday night. “When you get a win the first night, you get that immediate nostalgic feeling that it’ll be the same the next night – and it’s never the same the next night.”
Avoiding that feeling will be essential if UCLA is to win the away leg of the home-and-home series. Even though the Bruins boast a 8-2 record away from home, they must still make adjustments.
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“We’re gonna go watch this game and see what we have to work on,” said sophomore outside hitter Jake Arnitz. “We played pretty good tonight … but tomorrow we’ll figure out what we need to do to beat them again.”
The Bruins will have a good chance to extend their win streak if Arnitz repeats his performance against the Gauchos. The sophomore led the UCLA attack with 13 kills in Wednesday’s victory.
The victory guaranteed the Bruins with a winning record in conference play and also clinched them a spot in the eight-team MPSF tournament. To maintain its level of success, the team said it needs to both make adjustments and figure out what good aspects of a performance to carry forward.
“I think we played good defense. We were chasing down balls left and right,” said freshman setter/hitter Micah Ma’a about Wednesday’s win. “We just have to take that forward — break down every point and see where we can get points here and there, while also figuring out ways to stop them.”
The visiting Gaucho crowd made its presence known on Wednesday night in Westwood, a two-hour drive from UCSB. Given this, the home crowd will make it quite tough for the Bruins to carry the momentum from the first win up to Santa Barbara.
“We have to be prepared to go up to play in a really tough gym, with a tough crowd and a team that’s gonna be a little more hungry,” Speraw said. “I expect it to be a very different volleyball match.”
Email Share at pshare@media.ucla.edu or tweet him @phizzbeat.