The dress rehearsal is over; every match from this point forward can tilt national championship aspirations one way or another.
Friday marks the start of the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation Conference play for the No. 6 UCLA men’s volleyball team (3-1) as it hosts No. 1 Stanford (3-0) in an early clash between national championship contenders.
Since the conference winner earns an automatic ticket to the NCAA tournament, all conference matchups carry an extra bit of weight. While players claim to prepare for conference matches in the same way as any other match, the same cannot be said from a coaching perspective.
“Early in the season when we’re playing some non-conference opponents, I’m more likely to try some different lineups and maybe experiment a bit with the roster,” said coach John Speraw. “With conference games … I might make some different decisions with regards to how I adjust over the course of the match.”
The time to experiment with the roster may be over, but don’t expect the starting lineup he puts out against Stanford to go unchanged over the rest of the season. According to Speraw, the Bruins’ best starting lineup is yet to be determined.
“I would expect that throughout the season we’ll come out there with different lineups based on what we think is the best matchup and who we think is in the best moment,” Speraw said. “I don’t think you can look at one particular lineup right now and say that’s our lineup and anything else is not, I think we’re still in the midst of trying to determine that.”
Scouting Stanford
When these two teams faced off against each other two weeks ago in the UCSB Asics Invitational, it almost seemed as if the Bruins were caught by surprise. Stanford dominated most of the match, eventually winning in four sets against then-favorite UCLA.
When asked what challenges Stanford posed on that occasion, a common answer was provided by UCLA’s camp.
“They are pretty good in transition. That means when they are serving they are really good,” said senior outside hitter Gonzalo Quiroga. “They’re a good blocking team and they dig a lot of balls, they create lots of second chances.”
Both teams have had success since meeting each other. The Bruins won all three games in the Outrigger Hotels Invitational, while the Cardinal has climbed to the No. 1 ranked position in the nation.
It’s not often the case that a team has such an almost immediate opportunity at redemption, but the Bruins certainly aren’t complaining.
“They kind of gave us a little bit of a wake-up statement, like OK, maybe we aren’t as good as we thought we were,” said redshirt sophomore middle blocker Trent Kersten. “I think it’s a great test for us to play them again in that short amount of time.”