UCLA men’s volleyball looks like a much different team heading into the second half of its season. There are new faces in its starting lineup, new contributors on its stat sheet and a new resolve to finish the last 11 games strong.
UCLA emerged from the weekend 1-1. After bouncing back from dropping three sets at UC Irvine Friday, the team swept UC San Diego on Saturday.
The Bruins stand at 5-6 on the season after facing all Mountain Pacific Sports Federation opponents except Hawai’i.
Having experimented with various iterations of his lineup for the majority of the opening 11 games of MPSF play, coach John Speraw utilized the full depth of his roster against the Tritons. Sophomore outside hitter Jake Reeves earned his first season start, leading the Bruins’ offense with a career-best 10 kills. Redshirt freshman middle blocker Eric Sprague matched Reeves’ offensive output with a career-high 10 kills of his own, adding yet another impressive outing to his expanding season statistics.
“Some guys came off the bench when we needed them and really helped contribute to the win. I think (redshirt sophomore middle blocker) John Zappia came in, brought great energy and attacked really well. (Redshirt freshman middle blocker) Oliver Martin came in and did a nice job too, especially after he got going he finished really strong,” Speraw said. “We started Jake Reeves for the first time. I thought he did a really nice job controlling the ball. We had a lot of contributions from a lot of people.”
The Bruins struggled against the Anteaters’ strong serving Friday. Unable to control the ball effectively, UCLA failed to reach 20 points in any set. By drawing from their bench on Saturday, the Bruins managed to improve their offensive execution.
“UCI, they are a physical team and they’re really good at serving. We struggled with that, so we’ve got to improve our passing,” said sophomore setter Hagen Smith. “Against UCSD, we passed way better and we just knew what to do against them. We game planned a little bit better.”
Throughout UCLA’s early season struggles, Speraw lamented the Bruin’s apathy in practice. Now with half a season of training behind it, the team is more aware of the areas in which it needs to improve.
“Our strength is that we have the highest possibility for improvement out of any other team,” said redshirt junior middle blocker Trent Kersten. “(It’s) really good to get experience for the new guys on the court. Now they can play to their potential. I think they have a very high threshold for their skill level and we haven’t even gotten close to where we could be in a month or two.”