L to R: Kevin Kobrine (8), Matt Younggren (24), Alex Knight (12)
Photo by: Don Liebig/ASUCLA
MVB Opens Conference Play On the Road Thursday
February 04, 2020 | Men's Volleyball
COMING UP: UCLA (5-3, 0-0), ranked No. 7 in the American Volleyball Coaches Association (AVCA) poll, will begin Mountain Pacific Sports Federation (MPSF) conference play on Thursday at No. 2 BYU (10-0, 0-0) and on Saturday at No. 13 Stanford (4-4, 0-0, match Thursday vs. Pepperdine). The Bruins finished second in the MPSF standings last season and were picked to repeat that finish this season in the pre-season coaches poll (BYU picked first).
Match Day - Thu., Feb. 6
No. 7 UCLA at No. 2 BYU - 6 p.m. PT / 7 p.m. MT
TV: BYUtv https://www.byutv.org/
Live Stats: http://stats.statbroadcast.com/broadcast/?id=289423
Match Day - Sat., Feb. 8
No. 7 UCLA at No. 13 Stanford - 7 p.m. PT
TV: Pac-12 Los Angeles https://pac-12.com/mens-volleyball/event/2020/02/08/ucla-stanford
Live Stats: https://gostanford.com/sidearmstats/mvball/summary
REWIND: Last Saturday, the Bruins used a season-high 14.0 total blocks to hand Long Beach State its first home court loss in the regular season since March of 2016 (25-23, 25-18, 22-25, 25-23). Matt Younggren had a career-best 7 block assists and 9 kills in the win. Grant Maleski tied his career-best with two block solos and freshmen Alex Knight (4 block assists) and Mads Kyed Jensen (1 block solo and 3 block assists) each added season-best efforts at the nets. Cole Ketrzynski, who was named Off the Block's National Freshman of the week for his play at Pac12/Big Ten Challenge, tied his career-best with 17 kills at the Beach. Last Thursday, UCLA dropped a four-set decision to No. 13 Princeton (25-19, 22-25, 22-25, 23-25) in the first Bruin home match of the season. Alex Knight led UCLA with a season-best 15 kills. Matt Younggren matched his career-best with three aces. Fourteen Bruins saw action in the match.
LAST MEETING: UCLA split a pair of matches with BYU last season, with each team winning on its home court (at UCLA:16-25, 25-14, 25-19, 25-18 Bruins held a 13-7 service ace edge and received a team-high six block assists from Matt Younggren) (at BYU: 32-30, 25-21, 20-25, 16-25, 15-17 Daenan Gyimah led UCLA with 16 kills) ... UCLA's last win at BYU came on March 27, 2009 ... The Bruins split last season's matches with Stanford ... UCLA won at home in five sets (21-25, 25-14, 16-25, 26-24, 15-10) and lost in five sets on the road (25-23, 21-25, 19-25, 25-23, 10-15) ... The Cardinal out blocked UCLA in each match (17.0-13.0 at UCLA / 10.0-7.0 at Stanford).
NOTES: Alex Knight has hit .411 over the last four matches with 48 kills-9 err-95 att ... In matches it has won, UCLA is outhitting the opponent .366 to .191 and leading at the service line 46 aces to 15 --- In losses, UCLA is hitting .300 to .399 for its opponents, but leads at the service line 21 to 18 aces ... Cole Ketrzynski has been in double-digit kills for last four matches and his 17 kills (most by a Bruin true freshman player since Micah Ma'a put down 18 balls against Hawai'i in February of 2016) at Long Beach tied his season-high (also 17 v. Ohio State, at Princeton) ... UCLA recorded a season-best 14.0 total blocks at Long Beach with season-highs from Matt Younggren (7), Mads Kyed Jensen (4), Grant Maleski (4) and Alex Knight (4) ... The last time UCLA had more than 14.0 in match was in Mar. 2018 contest vs. Grand Canyon (16.0) ... Austin Matautia, who did not deliver an ace for the first time this season at Long Beach, tallied a career-high tying four block assists in win over Ohio State and had a career-best four aces at George Mason ... Penn State hit an even .500 in its win over the Bruins, the last time an opponent hit at least .500 against the Bruins was Pepperdine in a Feb. 23, 2018 match in Malibu (.553) ... The Bruins entered this week's action leading the nation in aces per set (2.31), with Mads Kyed Jensen third in the NCAA with a 0.76 mark (22 aces) and Austin Matautia 9th at 0.55 (16 aces) ... UCLA had a season-high 13 aces in its win over Ohio State ... Matt Younggren posted a career-high three aces in matches v. both Ohio State and Princeton ... Mads Kyed Jensen has at least four aces in four matches this season (Daemen-4, at Princeton-5, Penn State-5, Ohio State-4) and is hitting .724 over the last three matches (22k-1err-29 att) ... Alex Knight had a career-best three service aces in the win over the Buckeyes ... The Bruins used 15 players the opener at Daemen ... Five -- Cole Ketrzynski, Alex Knight, Cole Power, Daniel Matheney, Mads Kyed Jensen -- made their collegiate debuts in the match ... Sam Burgi saw his first action at George Mason, Kevin Kobrine debuted at UCSD, Ian Eschenberg made his first appearance of 2020 at Long Beach ... The last time UCLA held an opponent below .000 hitting% prior to Daemen (-.081) was in 2015 (Cal Baptist -.011) ... Daenan Gyimah has earned first-team AVCA All-America honors in each of the last two seasons and also has been the recipient of the Ryan Millar Award as the nation's top middle attacker.
Match Day - Thu., Feb. 6
No. 7 UCLA at No. 2 BYU - 6 p.m. PT / 7 p.m. MT
TV: BYUtv https://www.byutv.org/
Live Stats: http://stats.statbroadcast.com/broadcast/?id=289423
Match Day - Sat., Feb. 8
No. 7 UCLA at No. 13 Stanford - 7 p.m. PT
TV: Pac-12 Los Angeles https://pac-12.com/mens-volleyball/event/2020/02/08/ucla-stanford
Live Stats: https://gostanford.com/sidearmstats/mvball/summary
REWIND: Last Saturday, the Bruins used a season-high 14.0 total blocks to hand Long Beach State its first home court loss in the regular season since March of 2016 (25-23, 25-18, 22-25, 25-23). Matt Younggren had a career-best 7 block assists and 9 kills in the win. Grant Maleski tied his career-best with two block solos and freshmen Alex Knight (4 block assists) and Mads Kyed Jensen (1 block solo and 3 block assists) each added season-best efforts at the nets. Cole Ketrzynski, who was named Off the Block's National Freshman of the week for his play at Pac12/Big Ten Challenge, tied his career-best with 17 kills at the Beach. Last Thursday, UCLA dropped a four-set decision to No. 13 Princeton (25-19, 22-25, 22-25, 23-25) in the first Bruin home match of the season. Alex Knight led UCLA with a season-best 15 kills. Matt Younggren matched his career-best with three aces. Fourteen Bruins saw action in the match.
LAST MEETING: UCLA split a pair of matches with BYU last season, with each team winning on its home court (at UCLA:16-25, 25-14, 25-19, 25-18 Bruins held a 13-7 service ace edge and received a team-high six block assists from Matt Younggren) (at BYU: 32-30, 25-21, 20-25, 16-25, 15-17 Daenan Gyimah led UCLA with 16 kills) ... UCLA's last win at BYU came on March 27, 2009 ... The Bruins split last season's matches with Stanford ... UCLA won at home in five sets (21-25, 25-14, 16-25, 26-24, 15-10) and lost in five sets on the road (25-23, 21-25, 19-25, 25-23, 10-15) ... The Cardinal out blocked UCLA in each match (17.0-13.0 at UCLA / 10.0-7.0 at Stanford).
NOTES: Alex Knight has hit .411 over the last four matches with 48 kills-9 err-95 att ... In matches it has won, UCLA is outhitting the opponent .366 to .191 and leading at the service line 46 aces to 15 --- In losses, UCLA is hitting .300 to .399 for its opponents, but leads at the service line 21 to 18 aces ... Cole Ketrzynski has been in double-digit kills for last four matches and his 17 kills (most by a Bruin true freshman player since Micah Ma'a put down 18 balls against Hawai'i in February of 2016) at Long Beach tied his season-high (also 17 v. Ohio State, at Princeton) ... UCLA recorded a season-best 14.0 total blocks at Long Beach with season-highs from Matt Younggren (7), Mads Kyed Jensen (4), Grant Maleski (4) and Alex Knight (4) ... The last time UCLA had more than 14.0 in match was in Mar. 2018 contest vs. Grand Canyon (16.0) ... Austin Matautia, who did not deliver an ace for the first time this season at Long Beach, tallied a career-high tying four block assists in win over Ohio State and had a career-best four aces at George Mason ... Penn State hit an even .500 in its win over the Bruins, the last time an opponent hit at least .500 against the Bruins was Pepperdine in a Feb. 23, 2018 match in Malibu (.553) ... The Bruins entered this week's action leading the nation in aces per set (2.31), with Mads Kyed Jensen third in the NCAA with a 0.76 mark (22 aces) and Austin Matautia 9th at 0.55 (16 aces) ... UCLA had a season-high 13 aces in its win over Ohio State ... Matt Younggren posted a career-high three aces in matches v. both Ohio State and Princeton ... Mads Kyed Jensen has at least four aces in four matches this season (Daemen-4, at Princeton-5, Penn State-5, Ohio State-4) and is hitting .724 over the last three matches (22k-1err-29 att) ... Alex Knight had a career-best three service aces in the win over the Buckeyes ... The Bruins used 15 players the opener at Daemen ... Five -- Cole Ketrzynski, Alex Knight, Cole Power, Daniel Matheney, Mads Kyed Jensen -- made their collegiate debuts in the match ... Sam Burgi saw his first action at George Mason, Kevin Kobrine debuted at UCSD, Ian Eschenberg made his first appearance of 2020 at Long Beach ... The last time UCLA held an opponent below .000 hitting% prior to Daemen (-.081) was in 2015 (Cal Baptist -.011) ... Daenan Gyimah has earned first-team AVCA All-America honors in each of the last two seasons and also has been the recipient of the Ryan Millar Award as the nation's top middle attacker.
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