MVB Hosts BYU In NCAA Semis Thursday

BRUINS ADVANCE TO NCAA SEMIFINALS — No. 3-ranked UCLA (25-7, at-large) will meet No. 2-seeded and No. 2-ranked BYU (22-6, champion of the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation-MPSF) in an NCAA semifinal match on Thursday at 7:30 p.m. in Pauley Pavilion. The Bruins, who have won 10 of their last 12 overall matches, went 1-2 in three matches with BYU during the regular season with each team posting wins on their home court.

MATCH DAY: Thursday
NCAA MVB Semifinals
UCLA v. No. 2 seed BYU
Time: 7:30 p.m. PT
Site: Pauley Pavilion
Live Stats: https://www.ncaa.com/game/volleyball-men/d1/2018/05/03/ucla-byu
Video:https://www.ncaa.com/championship/liveplayer/player?gameId=2925889
Audio: http://ucla.leanplayer.com/

UCLA owns an 18-1 record on its home courts this season, the best mark since the 1995 national championship squad went undefeated in 15 home matches. The Bruins have won all 10 previous NCAA semifinal matches they have played in Pauley (2006, 1996*, 1993*, 1989*, 1987*, 1984*, 1979*, 1975*, 1971*, 1970*) and went on to win titles in all but the 2006 event. The other NCAA semifinal features No. 1 seed Long Beach State and two-time defending champ Ohio State at 5 p.m. in Pauley.

Last Time---UCLA's secured its first win in the NCAA Championships since the championship season of 2006 in Tuesday's Opening Round 3-1 win over Harvard. In 2006, the Bruins earned a 3-0 victory against Penn State to produce program championship No. 19 ... The Bruins were last in the NCAA Championships in the 2016 event, hosted by Penn State, where UCLA lost a semifinal match to eventual national champion Ohio State (2-3) ... Current Bruins Oliver Martin, JT Hatch, Micah Ma'a and Jake Arnitz each saw action against the Buckeyes in that match ... The last time UCLA won more than 25 matches in a season was in 2006 when it captured 26 wins in its last championship season ... The last time UCLA won more than 26 matches was in the NCAA Championship season of 2000 when it posted a 29-5 record and defeated Ohio State for the title.

BY THE NUMBERS
• Vs. teams in NCAA field this season, the Bruins went 5-4 (Jan. 5: 3-0 win v. King; Jan. 10: 3-2 win v. UC Irvine; Jan. 20: 3-2 win v. Ohio State; Feb. 3: 3-1 win at UC Irvine; Feb. 17: 1-3 loss at Long Beach; Feb. 21: 1-3 loss v. Long Beach: Mar. 3: 0-3 loss at BYU; Apr. 7: 3-0 win v. BYU; Apr. 21: 1-3 loss at BYU).
• The Bruins are 18-1 (12-1 in Pauley Pavilion) in home matches. The last time UCLA went unbeaten at home was in 1995 (15-0).
• UCLA is hitting .376 in the 19 home matches this season to .200 for the opponents and has lost just 13 sets with 10 sweeps.
• UCLA had hit at least .343 in 10 straight matches (9-1 record) before producing a .204 mark in the MPSF Championship match setback at BYU on Apr. 21 ... Prior to that, the last time the Bruins hit below .300 in a match came in the Mar. 3 loss at BYU (.214).
• The Bruins have held 12 opponents this season under .200 hitting % for the match, all wins (King .103, Ohio St. .113, Penn St. .186, UCSD .160, Princeton .123, .195 at Concordia, .179 at Grand Canyon, USC .141, George Mason .123, UCSB .099, Stanford .057, Harvard .165).
• Daenan Gyimah was named the winner of Off the Blocks' Ryan Millar Middle Attacker of the Year award ... He has hit at least .500 in each of the last nine straight matches ... Gyimah ended the regular season leading the nation in hitting percentage at .535 and was third in the NCAA in blocks/set (1.22).
• UCLA has hit at least .400 in 12 matches, all wins --- .400 v. BYU(h), .446 v. UCSB(h), . 493 v. George Mason(h), .412 v. Pepperdine(h), .458 v. USC(h), .494 at Grand Canyon, .400 at Concordia, .430 v. CSUN(h), .455 v. UC Irvine(h), .414 v. Princeton(h), .403 v. King(h).
• The Bruins hold a 57-31 advantage in service aces over the opponent in the last 10 matches ... The Bruins tied the school record with 15 aces in the match vs. Princeton earlier this season and also had tied the school mark for aces in a set, with seven, in that same match vs. Princeton.
• Only four times this season have opponents recorded more aces than UCLA----at BYU Apr. 21 (5-6), Pepperdine (h) (3-5), at BYU Mar. 3 (1-3) and Ohio State (h) (2-4).
• UCLA is 25-1 when it hits for a higher % than its opponent (only loss at USC)... The only matches in which UCLA has been outhit by an opponent were in losses at BYU, Apr. 21 (.225/.204), at BYU, Mar. 3 (.318/.214), at Pepperdine (.455/.203), at Hawai'i (.236/.209), Long Beach State (twice: home-.408/.315; away- .343/.191).
• This is the 15th time UCLA has played host to the NCAA men's volleyball championship - 1970 (UCLA champ), 1971 (UCLA), 1975 (UCLA), 1977 (USC), 1979 (UCLA), 1984 (UCLA), 1985 (Pepperdine), 1987 (UCLA), 1989 (UCLA), 1993 (UCLA), 1996 (UCLA), 1999 (BYU), 2005 (Pepperdine), 2013 (UC Irvine). The Bruins have captured nine NCAA championships in Pauley.
• Micah Ma'a is four shy of setting a new UCLA season record for service aces.
• Seven freshmen have seen action this season - MB Ian Parish, L Garland Peed, Opp Colin Bailey played large roles in the home win over UC Irvine. Redshirt freshman Sam Kobrine saw his first career action against Hawai'i (Jan. 26). True frosh Grant Maleski's first appearance came at Concordia (Feb. 8), while Alex Parks debuted at Long Beach (Feb. 17). Sam Jones saw his first action vs. BYU (Apr. 7).
• Christian Hessenauer has led/tied for team lead in kills in 18 matches this season --12-NJIT, 13-UC Irvine, 11-Penn St., 19-Ohio St., 20-at UHaw.2, 15-at UCI, 17 v. CSUN, 12 at Concordia, 14 at G. Canyon, 16 at Stanford, 8 at BYU, 10 v. George Mason, 18 vs. Concordia, 16 vs. Grand Canyon, 11 v. UC Santa Barbara, 22 at USC, 8 vs. Stanford, 22 v. Harvard.
• Head Coach John Speraw secured victory milestones (100 wins at UCLA- vs. Penn State; and 300 career wins vs. Ohio State) at this season's AVCA Showcase ... His current records are 318-171 overall as a collegiate head coach and 119-60 as head coach at UCLA.

2018 NCAA MVB Bracket
Apr. 26 - NCAA Opening Round (at Columbus, Ohio)
Ohio State 3 vs. King 0
May 1 - NCAA Opening Round (Pauley Pavilion)
Ohio State 3 vs. UC Irvine 2
UCLA 3 vs. Harvard 1
May 3 - NCAA Semifinals (Pauley Pavilion)
No. 1 Long Beach St. vs. Ohio St. - 5 p.m.
No. 2 BYU vs. UCLA - 7:30 p.m.
May 5 - NCAA Championship (Pauley Pavilion - 4 pm) ESPN2

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