After a dominating fall preseason, the UCLA men’s
volleyball team had pretty high hopes going up against UC Irvine in
its January season opener. But staring across the net were six
veteran Anteaters, prepared to defeat the young Bruin team. And
they did.
Despite being swept 3-0, the Bruins kept the match close. What
could have helped them was more experience on the court. Many of
the UCLA starters, though they are upperclassmen, had not seen much
playing time prior to this season.
Today, the Bruins (10-7, 5-6 MPSF) will have the chance to prove
themselves against the Anteaters (14-3, 9-2) at 7 p.m. in Pauley
Pavilion.
Now nearly two months after their last meeting, UCLA has gained
some much-needed experience. The young team has 14 more matches
under its belt and has made many improvements over the course of
the season, both offensively and defensively.
Since the January meeting, coach Al Scates has tinkered with the
starting lineup numerous times. Though he has not yet found a truly
successful combination, he has been able to give many of the
players valuable playing time and practice.
“We played a lot of different players since then,”
Scates said. “We have the ability now to use different
personnel because we have just about gotten everybody in that
we’ll be using.”
One new member of the personnel Scates will be able to use is
junior opposite Steve Klosterman, who was unavailable for the
January match while he was recovering from his shoulder injury.
“He was a very good player freshman year when he was
healthy,” Scates said. “Last year he picked up some bad
habits because his shoulder hurt and so he was hitting in a manner
that gave him reduced pain instead of using the proper arm swing.
But now he’s back to an excellent arm swing.”
Having Klosterman, a three-year starter, in the lineup will
bring more experience to the court and a new level of intensity
that was missing in the January matchup.
The Bruins hope to have a repeat performance from Klosterman,
who had a career-high 27 kills in Wednesday’s match against
Pepperdine.
“I think having the best people on the court is going to
win the job,” outside hitter Damien Scott said.