Following a pair of Canadian exhibition matches, the UCLA men’s volleyball team opened its regular season in the UC Santa Barbara asics Invitational against three more unfamiliar opponents. Over the two-day invitational, the Bruins defeated all three East Coast schools with contributions from almost the entire 16-man roster.
On Friday morning, No. 5 UCLA (3-0) beat St. Francis University, Pa., (0-4) in four sets before facing No. 15 Indiana University – Purdue University Fort Wayne (1-2) that night. Led by freshman outside hitter Jake Arnitz’s 18 kills, the Bruins won 3-1 for their first victory over a ranked opponent. Sophomore middle blocker Mitch Stahl and redshirt junior middle blocker Trent Kersten anchored the defense with four blocks each.
“It was definitely a full team effort when you have to play that many games in just two days, so we needed every guy,” said sophomore outside hitter Jake Reeves.
Just as he had in the preseason exhibitions, coach John Speraw continued to mix and match starters to explore his various lineup options.
“I put in an entirely different lineup between the first two matches, and then I kind of mixed some things up a little bit more in the last match,” Speraw said. “We played almost everybody on the roster.”
Saturday’s match against Limestone College (Division II) was UCLA’s most dominant. The Bruins, paced by redshirt freshman outside hitter Oliver Martin’s nine kills, swept the Saints and punctuated the night with a 25-9 victory in the final set. The team also set a new school record with 15 service aces.
“Tonight, we had a really good serving night, so I think we just gotta trust in our serves, know that we can score points with it and get teams into that situation like we did tonight and ultimately win games with our serving,” said sophomore outside hitter Michael Fisher, who contributed five aces to the team’s total.
Fisher added that, like the two Canadian schools, the East Coast teams weren’t familiar opponents for UCLA, but the team was once again able to adjust on the fly.
“It felt good to start the season 3-0,” Speraw said. “I thought in certain areas of the game we played real well, and it was another opportunity early in the season to play a number of guys on our roster in the hopes of determining a future starting lineup going into our first conference weekend.”
The team heads to Provo, Utah, for a pair of matches against No. 6 Brigham Young University to start Mountain Pacific Sports Federation play on Jan. 16.