March 10, 2009

The 11th-ranked UCLA men's volleyball team will travel this week to Cal State Northridge and UC Santa Barbara before taking a week off for final examinations. The Bruins (8-11, 4-8) meet the Matadors (15-2, 11-2) on Wed., Mar. 11 and visit the Gauchos (5-12, 3-11) on Fri., Mar. 13. Both matches begin at 7 p.m.

Darren Preston and Jade Machado will call the action courtside for Wednesday's match on uclabruins.com.

UCLA has lost twice to CS Northridge this season, falling in four games on Jan. 8 in the UCSB Elephant Bar Classic and in three games at Pauley Pavilion on Jan 23. Since losing twice on the road at Hawai'i in late January, the Matadors have won nine straight matches, including a 3-2 thriller at Pepperdine on Feb. 25 and a pair of home sweeps against BYU last week. Currently, they are in the driver's seat of the conference race, having defeated both UC Irvine and Pepperdine on the road.

UC Santa Barbara, which recently split a road series at Hawai'i last week, lost in three games to the Bruins on Jan. 16. First-year coach Rick McLaughlin is rebuilding a program coached for 30 years by Ken Preston, who retired after the 2008 season.

Last week at home the Bruins split a pair of matches against Grand Canyon University and UC Irvine. The Bruins swept GCU -- a first-year program -- and extended No.2 UCI to five games before falling 15-11 in the fifth.

Against GCU, freshmen middles Thomas Amberg and Nick Vogel led the Bruins, combining for 30 kills in a 75-minute sweep. The Bruins hit .484 on the night and served seven aces.

It was a different story two nights later against the second-ranked Anteaters. Freshman opposite Jack Polales hammered a career-high 22 kills (.333) and senior outside hitter Sean O'Malley added 14 in a match in which the Bruins rallied to force a fifth game. UC Irvine recorded its third victory against the Bruins this season and now trails in the series 52-10. Head Coach John Speraw (UCLA '95) has won eight of those matches, half of the 16 UCI has played against UCLA in his seven-year tenure.