Jan. 4, 2006

In 2006 Head Coach Al Scates enters his 44th season leading the UCLA men's volleyball team in its quest for a record 19th NCAA title.

The Bruins, who advanced to the NCAA Championship match last season, return two starters and nine lettermen from a team that finished with a 26-6 overall record.

This weekend the Bruins will begin a three-week road trip, starting in Santa Barbara and traveling to Orange County and culminating in Hawaii.

The Bruins are seeded first for the 42nd Annual UCSB/Elephant Bar Collegiate Invitational and will meet eighth-seeded Stanford at 1 p.m., Fri., Jan. 6 on Court #1 in the UCSB Events Center. The winner advances to a 7 p.m. match on the same day.

The championship match will be played on Sat., Jan. 7 at 6:30 p.m. in the Events Center.

The following week, the Bruins will begin MPSF play at UC Irvine in a 7 p.m. match on Fri., Jan. 13.

In two weeks, the Bruins will travel to Hawaii for the annual Outrigger Hotels Tournament, scheduled for Jan. 18-20 in Honolulu, HI.

"We spent 17 days traveling in Italy this Fall and the team came together quite well," said Scates, whose career record of 1,109-200 (.847) leads all Division I volleyball coaches of both genders. "We won six out of 10 matches against quality opponents (in Italy). After that we traveled to Canada and won three out of four. Our team has learned to handle hostile crowds, doubleheaders and a travel regimen. We've played a lot of matches together so we expect to play very well in Santa Barbara."

On Dec. 30, the Bruins defeated visiting Winnipeg University 3-0 to finish the preseason with an 8-1 record. On Nov. 4-5, UCLA defeated USC (3-0), UC Santa Barbara (3-0) and CS Northridge (3-1) to win the UCLA Tournament.

The Bruins won last year's Elephant Bar event, sweeping USC and Long Beach State in their first two matches before outlasting Cal State Northridge 3-2 in the championship.