For the men’s volleyball team, the upcoming SAC Tournament will measure how the team has prepared for this year, and if it is ready to have another successful season.
In the fourth year of the tournament that is held in the Student Activities Center gym, the Bruins will face three squads varying in talent and experience, giving coach Al Scates an opportunity to evaluate his players.
The Bruins play Cal Baptist in the first match this afternoon and will be going against older, experienced players.
“We’ll see a team that has some 25-, 26-year-olds that have some professional experience,” Scates said. “We’re going to play a very talented team Friday.”
Cal Baptist, a member of the NAIA, does not face the same recruiting restrictions as NCAA schools and can play older players with international experience.
The next match will be Saturday morning, against a UC Santa Barbara team that Scates said is “really building their program” under second-year coach Rick McLaughlin who once earned ASICS/Volleyball Magazine National Coach of the Year honors following his 1999-2000 season at Loyola Marymount.
The final match of the tournament will be Saturday afternoon, against Cal State Northridge. CSUN is a traditional powerhouse in the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation, and Scates knows the match will be tough from start to finish.
“Northridge has been a very strong team lately,” Scates said. “They’re always tough, particularly in the beginning because of their great serving ability. It sets up a lot of opportunities for them to score.”
The players are looking forward to seeing how they fare against the competition. Senior outside hitter Garrett Muagututia believes he will learn more about the team this weekend.
“Some guys that aren’t starting now may be starting after this tournament,” Muagututia said.
He is also looking to finally beat CSUN in the SAC Tournament.
“We haven’t beaten Northridge in the SAC tournament since I’ve been here, so this is going to be a good fight,” he said.
For freshman Chen Levitan, an Israeli National Team player who committed to UCLA during the summer, the tournament will be a chance to get acclimated to American collegiate volleyball.
“I’m pretty excited. I want to see the level, I want to see the players,” Levitan said. “From what I’ve heard from people, college volleyball is really high-level.”
Muagututia made it clear that the SAC tournament will indicate how ready the Bruins are to play.
“This is the test. We don’t really know how prepared we are,” he said “We feel like we’re prepared, lifting day in and day out, but this tournament’s going to be the test.”