The UCLA men’s volleyball team is in the midst of a
pivotal three-match road trip, and so far, the Bruins are meeting
their goals, having beaten UC Santa Barbara 3-0 on Wednesday.
“If we win two out of three road matches, we will be in
good shape,” said UCLA head coach Al Scates before the Santa
Barbara win.
This weekend No. 11 UCLA (7-7, 4-6 MPSF) will travel to the Bay
Area where it faces No. 8 University of the Pacific (9-5, 6-2) on
Friday and No. 9 Stanford (7-7, 5-5) on Saturday.
“I certainly want to beat Pacific and if we do, we might
reevaluate our goal for the weekend (of winning two out of
three),” Scates said. “Then we definitely want to beat
Stanford.”
While the victory over the No. 14 Gauchos was nice, UCLA is most
concerned with beating the teams ahead of it in the rankings as the
MPSF playoffs loom April 19.
“The Stanford match is the most important game of the
year, we want to beat the teams ahead of us.”
It would appear as though the Stanford match is important to
both teams, as Cardinal head coach Don Shaw was scouting the Bruins
Wednesday night in Santa Barbara.
Stanford senior opposite Curt Toppel, who has been out with an
abdominal strain since Feb. 1, is questionable for this
weekend.
As a junior, Toppel was named a First-Team All-American by the
American Volleyball Coaches Association and was named a First-Team
All-Mountain Pacific Sports Federation player.
The Bruins have not won at Stanford since 2000.