A true sign of a good team is its ability to put away inferior
opponents.
If Wednesday’s five-game match against NAIA opponent Cal
Baptist was any indication, the No. 2 UCLA men’s volleyball
team has a lot of work to do.
Cal Baptist combined for a .405 hitting percentage in the last
four games and had four players with over 18 kills.
That wasn’t exactly the Bruins’ plan for success,
even though they were eventually able to eke out the victory.
“It’s always a bad sign when you’re not
playing as well as you should,” outside hitter Kris Kraushaar
said. “It was definitely not one of our best
performances.”
Friday, the Bruins (4-0) face a similar challenge against UC
Irvine (1-3), a team the Bruins have already defeated twice this
season.
This time around, the Bruins hope they don’t have to go
five games.
“UCI is a good team,” middle blocker Allan Vince
said. “But we definitely want to put them away
early.”
In both previous matches this year, the Bruins swept the
Anteaters in three games, with the last victory coming a week ago
in the UC Santa Barbara tournament.
In the last match, UCLA was led by Paul Johnson, who recorded a
match-high 21 kills.
“Paul has been phenomenal for us,” UCLA coach Al
Scates said.
“UCI used a lot of lineups against us to try and stop him,
but most were not successful.”
Luckily for the Bruins, the Anteaters won’t contain nearly
the same attack that Cal Baptist brought to the court on
Wednesday.
UCI was defeated by Cal Baptist 3-0 earlier this season. Their
team is in a rebuilding process, with many of its best players
having graduated after last season.
“They’re a very young team,” Scates said.
“They will be better next year than this season.
“They are similar to the UCLA basketball team.”
Also on the Bruins’ side is their recent success against
the Anteaters, having defeated them three consecutive games.
Their match against UCI will be the second in a four-game
homestand that will begin the conference season for the undefeated
Bruins.
“It’s a very good situation for us to have these
beginning matches at home,” Scates said.