Photo by: Don Liebig/ASUCLA
MVB Returns to Action in MPSF
March 26, 2019 | Men's Volleyball
THIS WEEK -- No. 5 UCLA (16-6, 6-2 in Mountain Pacific Sports Federation) will continue its MPSF road swing on Wednesday night with a match at No. 4 Pepperdine (16-6, 5-3). The Bruins then return home to host Grand Canyon (12-12, 2-6) on Sunday afternoon at 2 p.m. in the Wooden Center.
The Bruins began the second half of league play with five-set losses at Stanford (Mar. 16 --- 25-23, 21-25, 19-25, 25-23, 10-15) and at BYU (Mar. 14 --- 30-32, 21-25, 25-20, 25-16, 17-15). Five of UCLA's total of six losses this season have come in road matches.
MATCH DAY: Wednesday, Mar. 27
No. 5 UCLA at No. 4 Pepperdine - Firestone Fieldhouse
Time: 7:00 p.m. PT
Live Stats: http://www.statbroadcast.com/events/statbroadcast.php?t=1&gid=ucla
Live Video: https://wccsports.com/watch/?id=164922
Live Audio: https://ucla.leanplayer.com/
MATCH DAY: Sunday, Mar. 31
Grand Canyon at No. 5 UCLA - John Wooden Center
Time: 2:00 p.m. PT
Live Stats: http://www.statbroadcast.com/events/statbroadcast.php?t=1&gid=ucla
Live Video: http://pac-12.com/live/ucla-2
Live Audio: https://ucla.leanplayer.com/
LAST MEETING -- UCLA rallied to defeat Pepperdine in five sets in the first meeting of the year in Pauley Pavilion, presented by Wescom on Feb. 27 --- 29-31, 17-25, 25-20, 25-18, 15-9. Austin Matautia led the comeback with a career-best 22 kills, including nine in a momentum-swinging third set and six more in set five. Sam Kobrine compiled a career-best 12 kills. Cole Pender had a career-best 12 digs. UCLA hit .352 for the match, after swinging at a combined .164 clip in the first two sets, to .248 for Pepperdine. The Bruins had five aces to four for the Waves. Pepperdine finished with a 13.0 to 10.5 edge in total blocks.
ACES AND TRIPLE FOR MA'A -- Micah Ma'a, with 190, has moved to within five aces of taking over as the all-time leader in UCLA history (Gonzalo Quiroga, 2011-14 ---194). Ma'a is tied for the career ace lead among active NCAA I-II players with Dimitar Kalchev of CSUN. Ma'a has also registered the lone triple-double in men's volleyball this season with15 kills, 44 set assists, 15 digs at BYU on Mar. 14. It marked the first triple-double by an MPSF player since Ma'a had one in the 2016 season.
NCAA STATS -- UCLA began the week 4th in the nation in hitting % (.329) and 5th in Aces/set (1.72) ... It is 6th in kills/set (12.89) and 6th in set assist average (12.13). Daenan Gyimah leads the nation in hitting % (.512) ... Micah Ma'a rates 3rd nationally in aces (0.60 per set).
ON THE ROAD -- UCLA is 7-5 on the road this season (losses at Stanford, at BYU, at Long Beach, at UCSB, at CSUN). The Bruins have posted road wins against a couple of ranked teams from Loyola-Chicago (No. 11) and Lewis (No. 8). Last year, UCLA was 6-6 in true road matches in 2018.
AT HOME -- UCLA is 7-1 at home (5-1 in Pauley) this season after posting a 19-2 record in its home venues of Pauley Pavilion, presented by Wescom (13-2) and in the Wooden Center (6-0) last season ... It was the most home wins ever by the Bruins, one more than the 18 wins registered in 1987 ... Over the past three-plus seasons, UCLA is 36-5 in Pauley (2016: 10-1, 2017: 8-1, 2018: 13-2, 2019: 5-1) ... The last team not named Long Beach State (which also won in Pauley in February 2018 and May 2018) to defeat UCLA in Pauley was CSUN in February of 2017 (note: the Bruins did lose three home matches in the Wooden Center after the 2017 CSUN loss).
LAST MATCHES -- The Bruins lost their last match before the exam break, on Mar. 16, at Stanford in five sets --- 25-23, 21-25, 19-25, 25-23, 10-15. Brandon Rattray led the UCLA attack with a career-best 24 kills. UCLA hit .274 as a team. Stanford recorded a Bruin opponent season-high attack percentage of .430. UCLA won the ace battle at 7 to 3. The Cardinal out blocked the Bruins 10.0 to 7.5.
On Mar. 14 at BYU, Micah Ma'a recorded a triple-double, with 15 kills (8 in set five), 44 set assists and a career-best 15 digs, to go with all three Bruin aces in the match. Daenan Gyimah led UCLA with 16 kills (.375). Ian Eschenberg, who started his first career match in place of injured Austin Matautia (ankle), totaled 10 kills on the night. BYU outhit the Bruins .285 to .268 for the match. The Cougars had 10 hitting errors in the first two sets and just seven the rest of the way. The Cougars, with a 4-3 edge, out aced the Bruins. Each team registered 9.0 total blocks.
MPSF -- Each MPSF team has 12 conference matches. The MPSF Championship Tournament begins with seeds two, three and four hosting a quarterfinal match (April 13). The semifinals (Apr. 18) and final (Apr. 20) will be on the home floor of the No. 1 seed. The winner earns the automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament which will be hosted by Long Beach State on May 2 and 4. The Opening Round play-in matches of the NCAA Tournament will be held April 27 or 30 at a site to be determined. The NCAA Selection Show will be on April 21 at ncca.com.
MPSF Standings (thru Mar. 25)
UCLA 6-2
BYU 6-3
Pepperdine 5-3
Stanford 5-4
USC 4-4
Grand Canyon 2-6
Concordia 1-7
This week in the MPSF -- Mar. 28: BYU at Concordia; Mar. 29: Grand Canyon at Pepperdine, Stanford at USC; Mar. 30: BYU at USC, Stanford at Concordia
BY THE NUMBERS
• Micah Ma'a has totaled at least 3 aces in 9 matches this season: at Stanford-5, at BYU-3, at Loyola-3, at UCSD-3, UCSD-3, USC-4, Long Beach-4, BYU-5 and Lindenwood-5 ... He has 10 aces, 30 digs and 24 kills in last four matches.
• Micah Ma'a has recorded multiple aces in 11 contests with at least one ace in 20 of the 22 matches this year (not at McKendree or at Grand Canyon).
• Daenan Gyimah began the week leading the NCAA in hitting at .512 ... Gyimah has totaled 17 matches this season with at least a .400 (not at BYU, vs. Pepperdine, at Grand Canyon, vs. Princeton and at CSUN) ... He had a streak of 13 straight matches hitting at least .400 stopped at home against Pepperdine (.211).
• UCLA is 16-0 when it hits for a higher % than the opponent ... In 8 home matches in 2019, UCLA is swinging at a .331 clip vs. .230 for opponents and owns a 66-30 edge in aces ... In 12 away matches - UCLA is hitting .319 to .282 for opponents and the visitors own a 64-63 ace advantage.
• UCLA is 7-6 this year vs. teams ranked in the AVCA poll at the time of the match, after going 14-7 last season.
• UCLA has hit over .400 (.530 vs. Penn St., .420 vs. USC, .475 vs. UCSB and McKendree; .449 at UCSD, .407 at Loyola) six times (6-0) in 2019 ... UCLA's .200 hitting % at CSUN was the lowest since it hit .191 in a loss at Long Beach State a season ago ... In wins this season, the Bruins have hit .362 to .200 for opponents ... In losses this season, the team has hit .249 to .373 for opponents (BYU's .285 was lowest by a winning opponent this year).
• Brandon Rattray has hit .371 (113k-38e-202ta) with 9 aces in the last 8 matches ... He registered a career-best 24 kills at Stanford ... Rattray began the week ranked 17th in the NCAA (6th in MPSF) in kills/set this year (3.61) ... He has 242 kills this season after totaling 40 a season ago at UH where he appeared in 12 matches.
• Grant Maleski, who has started the last 14 matches, has led or tied for the team lead in block assists eight times in those 14 starts ... He had a streak of 8 straight matches with at least one ace stopped at BYU.
• Libero Cole Pender has handled 164 of his last 168 serve receptions (.976) without error over the past 7 matches.
• True freshman Cole Pender (libero) saw his first career action against UCSD; R-Fr. Adam Parks took the court for the first time at CSUN and saw his first extensive action at Lewis; R-Fr. J.R. Norris saw his initial career action vs. Long Beach State and made his first start vs. Stanford; R-Jr. Jonah Kay saw his first action at UCSD. Alex Parks and Spencer Sachs saw action on the Chicago trip. True freshman Ian Eshcenberg, who made his first career start at BYU Thursday, saw his first career action this season at Long Beach State.
• Senior hitter Dylan Missry (listed as day-to-day) has at least one service ace in eight of his 11 matches this season ... Missry is seventh on the all-time school list for career aces with 86 (rally scoring era of 2001 to the present). Missry missed 11 matches due to injury before returning in the last match at Stanford in a limited role.
• Austin Matautia is out for the season with an ankle injury suffered against Penn State ... He hit .343 over his last five matches ... He was MPSF Offensive POW after leading UCLA to wins over Pepperdine (2/27) and Grand Canyon (3/1) ... He had a career-best 22 kills vs. Pepperdine.
• MB Matt Younggren, who posted a season-high six block assists in the back-to-back MPSF home matches vs. BYU and Stanford, has appeared in 10 matches this season ... Last year, he saw action in 18 contests a season ago for UC Irvine (1.3 kills per set / six aces / 0.7 blocks per set).
• UCLA has won the ace battle in 16 matches (13-3) this season; it has come up short this season in a loss (3-4) at BYU, in loss (3-12) at Long Beach, in win (7-9) at Loyola and (2-4) in loss at CSUN ... It was equal in victories at Grand Canyon (1-1) and at Lewis (3-3).
• The Bruins are 7-0 in 2019 when holding the opponent to .200 or below hitting % after limiting 3 of last 5 opponents to .170 or under (Penn St. .117, Ohio State .017, Grand Canyon .170). It held Concordia to .101, BYU (home) to .118, UCSD to .066 and UCSB (in Pauley) to .183.
• The Bruins rebounded from a season-low .200 hitting percentage in a loss at CSUN to hit .475 in a win at McKendree ... Daenan Gyimah recorded a school record .917 % (11k-0-12att) in that win (old mark was .900 held by several players, last Allan Vince in 2005 v. UCI).
AVCA Top 15 Coaches Poll (Mar. 25)
1. Hawaii 20-0
2. Long Beach State 19-1
3. UC Santa Barbara 15-5
4. Pepperdine 16-6
5. UCLA 16-6
6. Stanford 14-8
7. UC Irvine 14-7
8. Lewis 18-5
9. USC 13-8
10. BYU 12-8
11. Loyola-Chicago 15-7
12. CSUN 10-10
13. George Mason 13-6
13. Ball State 13-11
15. Purdue Ft. Wayne 13-9
The Bruins began the second half of league play with five-set losses at Stanford (Mar. 16 --- 25-23, 21-25, 19-25, 25-23, 10-15) and at BYU (Mar. 14 --- 30-32, 21-25, 25-20, 25-16, 17-15). Five of UCLA's total of six losses this season have come in road matches.
MATCH DAY: Wednesday, Mar. 27
No. 5 UCLA at No. 4 Pepperdine - Firestone Fieldhouse
Time: 7:00 p.m. PT
Live Stats: http://www.statbroadcast.com/events/statbroadcast.php?t=1&gid=ucla
Live Video: https://wccsports.com/watch/?id=164922
Live Audio: https://ucla.leanplayer.com/
MATCH DAY: Sunday, Mar. 31
Grand Canyon at No. 5 UCLA - John Wooden Center
Time: 2:00 p.m. PT
Live Stats: http://www.statbroadcast.com/events/statbroadcast.php?t=1&gid=ucla
Live Video: http://pac-12.com/live/ucla-2
Live Audio: https://ucla.leanplayer.com/
LAST MEETING -- UCLA rallied to defeat Pepperdine in five sets in the first meeting of the year in Pauley Pavilion, presented by Wescom on Feb. 27 --- 29-31, 17-25, 25-20, 25-18, 15-9. Austin Matautia led the comeback with a career-best 22 kills, including nine in a momentum-swinging third set and six more in set five. Sam Kobrine compiled a career-best 12 kills. Cole Pender had a career-best 12 digs. UCLA hit .352 for the match, after swinging at a combined .164 clip in the first two sets, to .248 for Pepperdine. The Bruins had five aces to four for the Waves. Pepperdine finished with a 13.0 to 10.5 edge in total blocks.
ACES AND TRIPLE FOR MA'A -- Micah Ma'a, with 190, has moved to within five aces of taking over as the all-time leader in UCLA history (Gonzalo Quiroga, 2011-14 ---194). Ma'a is tied for the career ace lead among active NCAA I-II players with Dimitar Kalchev of CSUN. Ma'a has also registered the lone triple-double in men's volleyball this season with15 kills, 44 set assists, 15 digs at BYU on Mar. 14. It marked the first triple-double by an MPSF player since Ma'a had one in the 2016 season.
NCAA STATS -- UCLA began the week 4th in the nation in hitting % (.329) and 5th in Aces/set (1.72) ... It is 6th in kills/set (12.89) and 6th in set assist average (12.13). Daenan Gyimah leads the nation in hitting % (.512) ... Micah Ma'a rates 3rd nationally in aces (0.60 per set).
ON THE ROAD -- UCLA is 7-5 on the road this season (losses at Stanford, at BYU, at Long Beach, at UCSB, at CSUN). The Bruins have posted road wins against a couple of ranked teams from Loyola-Chicago (No. 11) and Lewis (No. 8). Last year, UCLA was 6-6 in true road matches in 2018.
AT HOME -- UCLA is 7-1 at home (5-1 in Pauley) this season after posting a 19-2 record in its home venues of Pauley Pavilion, presented by Wescom (13-2) and in the Wooden Center (6-0) last season ... It was the most home wins ever by the Bruins, one more than the 18 wins registered in 1987 ... Over the past three-plus seasons, UCLA is 36-5 in Pauley (2016: 10-1, 2017: 8-1, 2018: 13-2, 2019: 5-1) ... The last team not named Long Beach State (which also won in Pauley in February 2018 and May 2018) to defeat UCLA in Pauley was CSUN in February of 2017 (note: the Bruins did lose three home matches in the Wooden Center after the 2017 CSUN loss).
LAST MATCHES -- The Bruins lost their last match before the exam break, on Mar. 16, at Stanford in five sets --- 25-23, 21-25, 19-25, 25-23, 10-15. Brandon Rattray led the UCLA attack with a career-best 24 kills. UCLA hit .274 as a team. Stanford recorded a Bruin opponent season-high attack percentage of .430. UCLA won the ace battle at 7 to 3. The Cardinal out blocked the Bruins 10.0 to 7.5.
On Mar. 14 at BYU, Micah Ma'a recorded a triple-double, with 15 kills (8 in set five), 44 set assists and a career-best 15 digs, to go with all three Bruin aces in the match. Daenan Gyimah led UCLA with 16 kills (.375). Ian Eschenberg, who started his first career match in place of injured Austin Matautia (ankle), totaled 10 kills on the night. BYU outhit the Bruins .285 to .268 for the match. The Cougars had 10 hitting errors in the first two sets and just seven the rest of the way. The Cougars, with a 4-3 edge, out aced the Bruins. Each team registered 9.0 total blocks.
MPSF -- Each MPSF team has 12 conference matches. The MPSF Championship Tournament begins with seeds two, three and four hosting a quarterfinal match (April 13). The semifinals (Apr. 18) and final (Apr. 20) will be on the home floor of the No. 1 seed. The winner earns the automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament which will be hosted by Long Beach State on May 2 and 4. The Opening Round play-in matches of the NCAA Tournament will be held April 27 or 30 at a site to be determined. The NCAA Selection Show will be on April 21 at ncca.com.
MPSF Standings (thru Mar. 25)
UCLA 6-2
BYU 6-3
Pepperdine 5-3
Stanford 5-4
USC 4-4
Grand Canyon 2-6
Concordia 1-7
This week in the MPSF -- Mar. 28: BYU at Concordia; Mar. 29: Grand Canyon at Pepperdine, Stanford at USC; Mar. 30: BYU at USC, Stanford at Concordia
BY THE NUMBERS
• Micah Ma'a has totaled at least 3 aces in 9 matches this season: at Stanford-5, at BYU-3, at Loyola-3, at UCSD-3, UCSD-3, USC-4, Long Beach-4, BYU-5 and Lindenwood-5 ... He has 10 aces, 30 digs and 24 kills in last four matches.
• Micah Ma'a has recorded multiple aces in 11 contests with at least one ace in 20 of the 22 matches this year (not at McKendree or at Grand Canyon).
• Daenan Gyimah began the week leading the NCAA in hitting at .512 ... Gyimah has totaled 17 matches this season with at least a .400 (not at BYU, vs. Pepperdine, at Grand Canyon, vs. Princeton and at CSUN) ... He had a streak of 13 straight matches hitting at least .400 stopped at home against Pepperdine (.211).
• UCLA is 16-0 when it hits for a higher % than the opponent ... In 8 home matches in 2019, UCLA is swinging at a .331 clip vs. .230 for opponents and owns a 66-30 edge in aces ... In 12 away matches - UCLA is hitting .319 to .282 for opponents and the visitors own a 64-63 ace advantage.
• UCLA is 7-6 this year vs. teams ranked in the AVCA poll at the time of the match, after going 14-7 last season.
• UCLA has hit over .400 (.530 vs. Penn St., .420 vs. USC, .475 vs. UCSB and McKendree; .449 at UCSD, .407 at Loyola) six times (6-0) in 2019 ... UCLA's .200 hitting % at CSUN was the lowest since it hit .191 in a loss at Long Beach State a season ago ... In wins this season, the Bruins have hit .362 to .200 for opponents ... In losses this season, the team has hit .249 to .373 for opponents (BYU's .285 was lowest by a winning opponent this year).
• Brandon Rattray has hit .371 (113k-38e-202ta) with 9 aces in the last 8 matches ... He registered a career-best 24 kills at Stanford ... Rattray began the week ranked 17th in the NCAA (6th in MPSF) in kills/set this year (3.61) ... He has 242 kills this season after totaling 40 a season ago at UH where he appeared in 12 matches.
• Grant Maleski, who has started the last 14 matches, has led or tied for the team lead in block assists eight times in those 14 starts ... He had a streak of 8 straight matches with at least one ace stopped at BYU.
• Libero Cole Pender has handled 164 of his last 168 serve receptions (.976) without error over the past 7 matches.
• True freshman Cole Pender (libero) saw his first career action against UCSD; R-Fr. Adam Parks took the court for the first time at CSUN and saw his first extensive action at Lewis; R-Fr. J.R. Norris saw his initial career action vs. Long Beach State and made his first start vs. Stanford; R-Jr. Jonah Kay saw his first action at UCSD. Alex Parks and Spencer Sachs saw action on the Chicago trip. True freshman Ian Eshcenberg, who made his first career start at BYU Thursday, saw his first career action this season at Long Beach State.
• Senior hitter Dylan Missry (listed as day-to-day) has at least one service ace in eight of his 11 matches this season ... Missry is seventh on the all-time school list for career aces with 86 (rally scoring era of 2001 to the present). Missry missed 11 matches due to injury before returning in the last match at Stanford in a limited role.
• Austin Matautia is out for the season with an ankle injury suffered against Penn State ... He hit .343 over his last five matches ... He was MPSF Offensive POW after leading UCLA to wins over Pepperdine (2/27) and Grand Canyon (3/1) ... He had a career-best 22 kills vs. Pepperdine.
• MB Matt Younggren, who posted a season-high six block assists in the back-to-back MPSF home matches vs. BYU and Stanford, has appeared in 10 matches this season ... Last year, he saw action in 18 contests a season ago for UC Irvine (1.3 kills per set / six aces / 0.7 blocks per set).
• UCLA has won the ace battle in 16 matches (13-3) this season; it has come up short this season in a loss (3-4) at BYU, in loss (3-12) at Long Beach, in win (7-9) at Loyola and (2-4) in loss at CSUN ... It was equal in victories at Grand Canyon (1-1) and at Lewis (3-3).
• The Bruins are 7-0 in 2019 when holding the opponent to .200 or below hitting % after limiting 3 of last 5 opponents to .170 or under (Penn St. .117, Ohio State .017, Grand Canyon .170). It held Concordia to .101, BYU (home) to .118, UCSD to .066 and UCSB (in Pauley) to .183.
• The Bruins rebounded from a season-low .200 hitting percentage in a loss at CSUN to hit .475 in a win at McKendree ... Daenan Gyimah recorded a school record .917 % (11k-0-12att) in that win (old mark was .900 held by several players, last Allan Vince in 2005 v. UCI).
AVCA Top 15 Coaches Poll (Mar. 25)
1. Hawaii 20-0
2. Long Beach State 19-1
3. UC Santa Barbara 15-5
4. Pepperdine 16-6
5. UCLA 16-6
6. Stanford 14-8
7. UC Irvine 14-7
8. Lewis 18-5
9. USC 13-8
10. BYU 12-8
11. Loyola-Chicago 15-7
12. CSUN 10-10
13. George Mason 13-6
13. Ball State 13-11
15. Purdue Ft. Wayne 13-9