Ever since its match against Hawai’i nearly a month ago, the UCLA men’s volleyball team has been trying to steer an unstable ship through a stormy sea.
The Bruins were riding high going into that game, with a 5-1 record and wins against some of the best teams in the country. Now, carrying a mediocre 8-7 record and coming off consecutive road losses, the Bruins are hoping a two-game home stand against the same team that started their rut will flip their fortunes once again, this time for the better.
It’s a critical part of the season for No. 6 UCLA (8-7, 4-5 Mountain Pacific Sports Federation), and while this midseason matchup against No. 13 Hawai’i (4-7, 3-5) isn’t necessarily a make-or-break situation for them, it’s a golden opportunity to turn the page from what has been a poor run of results.
For coach John Speraw, the difficulties so far have been partly a product of some expected growing pains.
“The entire development process of our team is in a lot of ways exactly what I expected,” Speraw said. “There are a lot of new players on the court trying to learn a lot of new things, and that is not always a smooth or easy process, as it shouldn’t be.”
The laundry list of things the team needs to improve on remains long, but the time left before the postseason begins is quickly ticking away. The Bruins are roughly halfway through the season, so the level of urgency to correct certain weaknesses will rise with each passing match.
The emphasis this week in practice has been on addressing offensive issues that have bothered the Bruins recently.
“Our hitting percentage and how we apply pressure to other teams with our offense has been impotent, so we have to work on that,” Speraw said.
Specifically, the Bruins are trying out a new strategy that is meant to put players in more comfortable positions around the court over the course of a match.
“Lately our number one focus has been switching up our offense. We’re running things a little bit differently, more backwards than we have been for the first half of the season,” said redshirt junior outside hitter Dane Worley. “We’re switching up hitters to where the outside hitters are playing opposite and opposites are playing on the outside, so everyone plays to their strengths.”
UCLA will know if this change works or not by the end of the weekend, which already promises to be a unique one.
Normally, the Bruins will play an opponent and then not have to face the same team again for a multitude of weeks. This weekend, however, UCLA will take on Hawai’i Friday night and then come back only 24 hours later to face them once again.
It may be an unusual situation for the Bruins, but some players are looking forward to it.
“It’s kind of weird, but I also like it,” said junior outside hitter Gonzalo Quiroga. “You’re playing them the first day, and by the second day you already know what they’re going to do, so I think it’s nice in that sense. … It’s going to be a fun weekend.”
Email Villalobos at lvillalobos@media.ucla.edu