No. 2-ranked UCLA (4-0), which will host the 2018 NCAA Men's Volleyball Championship in May, opens play this week at the University of San Diego (2-0) in a non-league match on Tuesday night. (Stream: UCSDtritons.tv / Live Stats: http://www.ucsdtritons.com/liveStats/v2/volleyball/index.dbml?GAME_STAT_ID=3159655&db_oem_id=5800 ).
The Bruins then return home to Pauley Pavilion to play host to the 2018 AVCA Men's Volleyball Showcase. The action begins on Thursday night with No. 13 USC (3-2) meeting two-time defending champ No. 3 Ohio State (2-1) at 5 p.m., followed by the Bruins vs. No. 9 Penn State (2-0) at 7:30 p.m. On Saturday, USC will play Penn State at 11 a.m. and the Bruins and the Buckeyes will battle beginning at 1:30 p.m. All four teams in this year's AVCA Showcase event own NCAA Men's Volleyball Championships --- UCLA (1970, 1971, 1972, 1974, 1975, 1976, 1979, 1981, 1982, 1983, 1984, 1987, 1989, 1993, 1995, 1996, 1998, 2000, 2006), Ohio State (2011, 2016, 2017), Penn State (1994, 2008), USC (1977, 1980, 1988, 1990). All matches of the Showcase will be televised live by the Pac-12 Network. Live stats may be found at uclalivestats.com Internet radio of the Bruin matches is at http://ucla.leanplayer.com/
The Bruins have opened play in the 2018 season with four straight wins --- last Wednesday, the Bruins rallied from two sets down to take out No. 6 UC Irvine 21-25, 19-25, 25-20, 25-16, 16-14. UCLA began the season with a 25-17, 25-22, 25-20 win over New Jersey Institute of Technology from the Eastern Intercollegiate VB Association (EIVA); the Bruins then topped King University from Conference Carolinas 25-17, 25-16, 25-11, and McKendree from the Midwest Intercollegiate VB Association (MIVA) 25-21, 25-22, 29-27 in the Wooden Volleyball Classic.
Christian Hessenauer (13 kills-.524), JT Hatch (9 kills, 2 aces, 7 digs) and Daenan Gyimah (13 kills-.684, 3 blocks) helped lead the Bruins to the comeback win over UC Irvine last week. Jake Arnitz paced the Bruin attack in week one by totaling 31 kills over three matches while hitting .390 on 59 swings. He added four aces and four blocks. Micah Ma'a set the Bruins to a .379 team hitting percentage for the opening week.
UCLA moved up to No. 2 in this week's AVCA poll after being picked No. 4 in the AVCA Preseason Poll and second in the Coaches' Preseason Mountain Pacific Sports Federation (MPSF) poll. In 2017, UCLA finished fifth in the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation (MPSF) standings and was No. 6 in the final AVCA National Poll.
A LOOK AT THE OPPONENTS - The Bruins bested former MPSF foe UC San Diego (2-0) twice last season, winning 3-0 in Westwood and 3-1 at San Diego. Penn State, from the EIVA, started the season with wins over Mt. Olive (3 sets to 1) and Alderson-Broaddus (3-0). The Bruins defeated Penn State last season in the AVCA Showcase event held in Columbus, Ohio 3-0 (25-18, 25-22, 25-17) led by Daenan Gyimah's 10 kills and 5 block assists. Ohio State is 2-1 on the year after dropping a five-setter over the weekend to BYU in a rematch of the last two NCAA Championships matches. OSU owns wins over Stanford (3-1) and North Greenville (3-0). UCLA lost a 1-3 decision (22-25,25-18, 21-25, 23-25) to Ohio State last season in the Showcase hosted. Jake Arnitz hit .440 in that contest with 16 kills and a couple of aces.
NEW LOOK LEAGUE - Concordia and Grand Canyon have been added to the MPSF this season to replace teams (Long Beach St., UC Santa Barbara, CSUN, UCSD, Hawai'i, UC Irvine) which left to form the Men's Volleyball Big West Conference. Each MPSF team has 12 conference matches on its 2018 schedule, which features a home-and-away contest against each opponent. The 2018 MPSF Championship Tournament begins with seeds two, three and four hosting a quarterfinal match on April 14. The conference semifinals are on April 19, on the home floor of the No. 1 seed. The top seed will host the lowest remaining available seed. The Championship match will take place on April 21, at the same site, with the winner earning the automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament which will be hosted by UCLA on May 3 and 5 in Pauley Pavilion.
AVCA Men's Volleyball Poll
| Jan. 15. Rank | School (First-Place Votes) | Total Points | 2018 Record | Previous Week |
| 1 | Long Beach State (22) | 372 | 6-0 | 2 |
| 2 | UCLA (1) | 334 | 4-0 | 3 |
| 3 | Ohio State (1) | 313 | 2-1 | 1 |
| 4 | Hawai'i (1) | 303 | 6-0 | 4 |
| 5 | BYU | 287 | 3-1 | 6 |
| 6 | UC Irvine | 259 | 4-1 | 5 |
| 7 | CSUN | 214 | 4-0 | 8 |
| 8 | Loyola-Chicago | 200 | 2-2 | 7 |
| 9 | Penn State | 153 | 2-0 | 9 |
| 10 | Pepperdine | 148 | 1-1 | 10 |
| 11 | Lewis | 140 | 1-3 | 11 |
| 12 | Grand Canyon | 86 | 5-1 | 13 |
| 13 | Southern California | 81 | 3-2 | 12 |
| 14 | Saint Francis | 55 | 4-2 | 15 |
| 15 | Ball State | 23 | 2-2 | 14 |
Others receiving votes and listed on two or more ballots: Stanford 15; UC Santa Barbara 12; Fort Wayne 2; UC San Diego 2