THIS WEEK — UCLA (23-2, 8-0 in the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation) is ranked No. 2 in the American Volleyball Coaches Association (AVCA) and No. 1 in the Off the Block media poll. The Bruins will take on the No. 12 Trojans (8-13, 1-7) in a pair of MPSF matches this week. On Thursday, UCLA hosts the Trojans in Pauley Pavilon presented by Wescom at 7 p.m. The Bruins travel to the Galen Center for a Saturday evening match at USC at 7 p.m. UCLA captured both meetings versus the Trojans last season (by 3-0 and 3-2 margins) and has won the last four meetings. USC's last series win came on Feb. 13, 2021.
• First Serve v. USC (Thu. Apr. 6): 7:00 p.m. PT
Live Stats: http://stats.statbroadcast.com/broadcast/?id=439515
TV/Video: https://pac-12.com/live?networks=P12LAX (Anne Marie Anderson)
• First Serve at USC (Sat. Apr. 8): 7:00 p.m. PT
Live Stats: https://usctrojans.com/sidearmstats/mvball/summary
TV/Video: https://pac-12.com/live?networks=P12LAX (Brian Webber)
After last season's 22-5 record, the Bruins have posted the first back-to-back 20-win seasons by the program since the 2012 and 2013 squads recorded 22 and 21 wins, respectively. The last time UCLA won more than 22 matches, prior to the current campaign, was in 2018 when it went 26-8 and advanced to the national championship match. The all-time school mark for wins in a season is 38 which was achieved in the 1987 and 1984 seasons. The 3-0 win over Grand Canyon last Saturday was the 16th sweep of the 2023 campaign which is the most by a UCLA team since it totaled 17 in the 2012 season. The school record for 3-0 wins in a season is 25 in the national championship year of 1995. Grand Canyon beame the first MPSF squad to win a set off the Bruins during last Friday's match. The last time UCLA recorded a perfect MPSF regular season record was in 1995 (19-0).
Following the matches against the Trojans, the Bruins will conclude the regular season schedule with a home-and-home pair of MPSF matches against No. 8 Pepperdine. UCLA finished the non-league portion of its schedule with records of 10-1 vs. the Big West Conference; 3-1 vs. EIVA; 2-0 vs. MIVA.
UCLA AND AVCA RANKINGS -- UCLA sits at No. 2 in this week's AVCA Coaches Poll. The Bruins earned the No. 2 spot in the pre-season AVCA poll for the fourth time in the past five seasons. UCLA has now been ranked as high as No. 2 in the AVCA poll at some point in 7 of the last 8 seasons (not in 2021) ... The Bruins finished the 2022 season listed fourth in the final AVCA poll after being as high as No. 1 for nine weeks during the year ... UCLA has ended a season ranked No. 1 in the AVCA poll a record nine times (1987, 1989, 1993, 1994, 1995,1996, 1998, 2000, 2006) over the years.
TEAM NCAA RANKING NOTES -- UCLA began the week leading the nation in hitting percentage (.382; the Bruins led the nation in hitting % last season as well at .374) and in ace average (2.07, UCLA has six double-digit ace matches in 2023, including a school-record tying 18 against UCSD (1/6) and three players ranked among the top 26 in the nation in ace average in Andrew Rowan-12th 0.46, Ido David-19th 0.42, Ethan Champlin-26th 0.36). The Bruins are also listed in the top 10 nationally in blocks (2nd-2.74), set assists (3rd-12.19), kills (3rd-12.92) and opponent hitting% (10th .212 with 11 opponents held below .200 this season).
PLAYER/COACH NOTES -- Ethan Champlin was MPSF Offensive POW after he totaled double figure kills in wins at GCU ... he is swinging at .456 rate over last 4 matches and has handled 70 of last 71 opponent serves w/o error ... Merrick McHenry has hit at least .500 in 10 of last 12 matches (96k-8e-152 att .579) to rise to No. 1 in the nation in hitting percentage (.507) ... Andrew Rowan was selected offtheblockblog.com National Setter of the Week after helping the Bruins to a pair of .400 hitting percentage matches at GCU ... Ido David has at least one ace in 10 of last 11 matches and five straight double-digit kill matches ... Guy Genis had a season-high 7 kills in each match at GCU and has no attack errors on 35 swings over past five matches (.686) ... Troy Gooch has handled 111 serves with 3 errors (.974) over the last six matches ... Alex Knight handled 37 of 38 serves at GCU w/o error (.974) ... John Speraw captured his 400th career win as a men's collegiate head coach against No. 6 UC Irvine (2/26/23). In a match at UCI (2/24/23), he won his 200th match while head coach at UCLA.
MPSF -- The Bruins (8-0) have kicked off MPSF play having won all but one set against BYU, Concordia-Irvine, Stanford and GCU and can clinch top seed, and quarterfinal round bye, in the post-season tournament with one more league win ... UCLA, which finished atop the 2022 MPSF standings with an 11-1 record, was picked to repeat by the coaches ... The '23 Pre-season MPSF coaches poll: 1-UCLA, 2-Pepperdine, 3-Stanford, T4-Grand Canyon, T4-USC, 6-BYU, 7-CUI ... this year's MPSF Post-Season Tournament, which determines the league's automatic bid to the NCAA Championship Tournament, will be held at Stanford, with video coverage provided by FloSports..
MPSF Standings (4/4)
UCLA 8-0
Grand Canyon 6-4
BYU 6-4
Pepperdine 4-4
Stanford 4-4
USC 1-7
Concordia 1-7
• First Serve v. USC (Thu. Apr. 6): 7:00 p.m. PT
Live Stats: http://stats.statbroadcast.com/broadcast/?id=439515
TV/Video: https://pac-12.com/live?networks=P12LAX (Anne Marie Anderson)
• First Serve at USC (Sat. Apr. 8): 7:00 p.m. PT
Live Stats: https://usctrojans.com/sidearmstats/mvball/summary
TV/Video: https://pac-12.com/live?networks=P12LAX (Brian Webber)
After last season's 22-5 record, the Bruins have posted the first back-to-back 20-win seasons by the program since the 2012 and 2013 squads recorded 22 and 21 wins, respectively. The last time UCLA won more than 22 matches, prior to the current campaign, was in 2018 when it went 26-8 and advanced to the national championship match. The all-time school mark for wins in a season is 38 which was achieved in the 1987 and 1984 seasons. The 3-0 win over Grand Canyon last Saturday was the 16th sweep of the 2023 campaign which is the most by a UCLA team since it totaled 17 in the 2012 season. The school record for 3-0 wins in a season is 25 in the national championship year of 1995. Grand Canyon beame the first MPSF squad to win a set off the Bruins during last Friday's match. The last time UCLA recorded a perfect MPSF regular season record was in 1995 (19-0).
Following the matches against the Trojans, the Bruins will conclude the regular season schedule with a home-and-home pair of MPSF matches against No. 8 Pepperdine. UCLA finished the non-league portion of its schedule with records of 10-1 vs. the Big West Conference; 3-1 vs. EIVA; 2-0 vs. MIVA.
UCLA AND AVCA RANKINGS -- UCLA sits at No. 2 in this week's AVCA Coaches Poll. The Bruins earned the No. 2 spot in the pre-season AVCA poll for the fourth time in the past five seasons. UCLA has now been ranked as high as No. 2 in the AVCA poll at some point in 7 of the last 8 seasons (not in 2021) ... The Bruins finished the 2022 season listed fourth in the final AVCA poll after being as high as No. 1 for nine weeks during the year ... UCLA has ended a season ranked No. 1 in the AVCA poll a record nine times (1987, 1989, 1993, 1994, 1995,1996, 1998, 2000, 2006) over the years.
TEAM NCAA RANKING NOTES -- UCLA began the week leading the nation in hitting percentage (.382; the Bruins led the nation in hitting % last season as well at .374) and in ace average (2.07, UCLA has six double-digit ace matches in 2023, including a school-record tying 18 against UCSD (1/6) and three players ranked among the top 26 in the nation in ace average in Andrew Rowan-12th 0.46, Ido David-19th 0.42, Ethan Champlin-26th 0.36). The Bruins are also listed in the top 10 nationally in blocks (2nd-2.74), set assists (3rd-12.19), kills (3rd-12.92) and opponent hitting% (10th .212 with 11 opponents held below .200 this season).
PLAYER/COACH NOTES -- Ethan Champlin was MPSF Offensive POW after he totaled double figure kills in wins at GCU ... he is swinging at .456 rate over last 4 matches and has handled 70 of last 71 opponent serves w/o error ... Merrick McHenry has hit at least .500 in 10 of last 12 matches (96k-8e-152 att .579) to rise to No. 1 in the nation in hitting percentage (.507) ... Andrew Rowan was selected offtheblockblog.com National Setter of the Week after helping the Bruins to a pair of .400 hitting percentage matches at GCU ... Ido David has at least one ace in 10 of last 11 matches and five straight double-digit kill matches ... Guy Genis had a season-high 7 kills in each match at GCU and has no attack errors on 35 swings over past five matches (.686) ... Troy Gooch has handled 111 serves with 3 errors (.974) over the last six matches ... Alex Knight handled 37 of 38 serves at GCU w/o error (.974) ... John Speraw captured his 400th career win as a men's collegiate head coach against No. 6 UC Irvine (2/26/23). In a match at UCI (2/24/23), he won his 200th match while head coach at UCLA.
MPSF -- The Bruins (8-0) have kicked off MPSF play having won all but one set against BYU, Concordia-Irvine, Stanford and GCU and can clinch top seed, and quarterfinal round bye, in the post-season tournament with one more league win ... UCLA, which finished atop the 2022 MPSF standings with an 11-1 record, was picked to repeat by the coaches ... The '23 Pre-season MPSF coaches poll: 1-UCLA, 2-Pepperdine, 3-Stanford, T4-Grand Canyon, T4-USC, 6-BYU, 7-CUI ... this year's MPSF Post-Season Tournament, which determines the league's automatic bid to the NCAA Championship Tournament, will be held at Stanford, with video coverage provided by FloSports..
MPSF Standings (4/4)
UCLA 8-0
Grand Canyon 6-4
BYU 6-4
Pepperdine 4-4
Stanford 4-4
USC 1-7
Concordia 1-7