UCLA men’s volleyball coach Al Scates had his Elephant Bar
Invitational bracket filled out even though the tournament
won’t even begin until Friday. The Bruins, naturally, were
picked to win it all.
That, however, came before it was learned starting outside
hitter Jonathan Acosta will miss at least the next three weeks due
to appendicitis.
Now Scates isn’t so sure of his prognostications.
“It’ll be a lot tougher to win without Jonathan, but
we could win it,” he said.
The injury to Acosta, the junior team captain, comes at a time
when the No. 3-seeded Bruins open their regular season against No.
6-seeded Pacific in Santa Barbara and want do so in a positive way
after coming off the worst season (15-14) in UCLA history.
Acosta and senior middle blocker Chris Peña are the key
returning Bruins, but it is the newcomers to the starting lineup
that could very well make or break the season.
True freshman Steve Klosterman, the No. 1 overall recruit in the
nation, looks to make his UCLA debut a successful one after the
Bruins struggled to find an answer at opposite hitter during the
last season.
Sophomore Beau Peters, a sophomore transfer from Long Beach
State will start for now as setter over Dennis Gonzalez. Both saw
action in last week’s Huskie Invitational.
Scates entered his team into the preseason tournament in Canada
to get his team off to a running start. The Bruins finished
third.
The Elephant Bar will be a good test for UCLA, with seven other
Mountain Pacific Sports Federation opponents entered into the
tournament and longtime rival Long Beach State being the top
seed.