The start of the UCLA men’s volleyball season was far from ideal.
The team had to hit the road right away to take on No. 7 Brigham Young University in its legendary Smith Fieldhouse, followed the next week by a tough turnaround facing nonconference Princeton, No. 4 Pepperdine and No. 14 Stanford all within five days.
The result: a 1-3 opening Mountain Pacific Sports Federation record. That win-loss ratio is far from the 9-1 start the Bruins enjoyed last year, but it was not without some additional positives. Coach John Speraw got his younger players more experience and fine tuned his lineup over the course of the tough opening stretch.
A 3-0 sweep of Stanford stabilized UCLA’s conference reputation following a 3-0 loss to Pepperdine and the No. 9 Bruins (5-3, 1-3 MPSF) will look to continue its momentum on the road this week, when they take on No. 11 Long Beach State 49ers (6-3, 3-3) Wednesday.
“(Long Beach) has a number of players they’ve been playing, so we have to know a lot of different guys and the game plan is fairly complex,” said Speraw. “We’ll have to be able to process all that and play in a tough environment.”
In order to handle these complex game plans, the Bruins have kept their focus on the basics over the course of their early season challenges.
“I think the key to this year, no matter where we’re playing – home or away – is going to be serving tough and passing the ball well,” said sophomore middle blocker Mitch Stahl. “I think those are two things that are going to make our team stand out from others.”
Speraw said last week that his team needed to learn how to assert itself in practice in order to experience results in its matchups. As the team orients itself with its new roster and new circumstances, the Bruins are focusing inward.
“I think we gel really well. Everyone’s going to tell us that we’re a young team and stuff and that’s fine,” said redshirt junior middle blocker Trent Kersten. “We don’t train like a young team. We’re pretty mature when it comes to training.”
Facing another quick turnaround with two games in three days to close out the week, UCLA’s matchup with Long Beach will test whether the team can maintain its momentum from Thursday’s win over Stanford.
“We have a long way to go,” Speraw said. “I think we have to maintain our focus on how we’re going to get better in practice and how we can implement that tomorrow at Long Beach.”