The UCLA men’s volleyball team was worn down as it neared the end of its practice Monday morning, save for sophomore outside hitter Gonzalo Quiroga. While the team rested during a water break, Quiroga stayed on the court, putting up some practice serves. During the subsequent scrimmage, it was Quiroga’s voice that pierced through the unfamiliar quietness of his teammates.
It was this same quiet and weary team that was handed its first conference loss two weeks ago against Long Beach State. As the Bruins prepare for a grudge match against the 49ers tonight, which Bruins squad shows up ““ the tired one or the fired-up one ““ will likely determine the outcome of the match.
Quiroga is confident it will be the latter taking the court on tonight.
“It’s a really important game for us,” Quiroga said. “A big game. It’s the only team that beat us this season, so we are really fired up. We were practicing really hard, because we know that it’s a really hard team to play.”
No. 1 UCLA (15-2, 9-1 Mountain Pacific Sports Federation) had a lot of miscues in its previous match against No. 8 Long Beach State (8-7, 4-6), struggling on both offense and defense.
The Bruins hit just .204 and also had trouble digging the ball throughout the match.
“You know, we passed well; we just didn’t hit well against that team,” coach Al Scates said.
“And we made some hitting errors. Usually our errors-to-block ratio is even, but we hit twice as many balls out against Long Beach as they blocked, which is pretty unusual for us. So it was a bad hitting night.”
Redshirt senior outside hitter Jeremy Casebeer believes it was this sloppy play by the Bruins that lost them the game, rather than the strong play of the 49ers.
“They’re definitely a good team, but I think it was completely on us,” Casebeer said. “We beat ourselves. We let an unbelievable amount of tips go down. But we’ve really been focusing on defense since then.”
This recommitment to defense is not just visible in the Bruins’ recent play, having won nine straight sets since the loss, but also in their equipment.
“Everyone’s wearing knee pads now,” Casebeer said. “I think that there was maybe one ball that went down all of practice today, so we’ve really changed our focus to improve where we need to.
“Some guys aren’t used to them, but it helps. It gives you more confidence going to the ground to dig some balls. You know you’re not going to mess your knee up.”
Another advantage UCLA will have in this rematch is the location.
Playing at home rather than at Long Beach State’s Walter Pyramid, with its distracting geodesic domed ceiling, should help the Bruins even more.
“It’s a big advantage, (playing at home),” Quiroga said. “It was really hard to play there. The crowd was kind of loud. I hope that a lot of people will come (tonight) and help us.”
Despite the tough loss, the Bruins have learned from their mistakes in that match and have come back strong from it, ready for retribution.
“(We learned) that we are beatable on any given night,” Casebeer said.
“Anyone can beat anyone. If we come out flat and sloppy and don’t really execute the game plan that we have going into the game, people can beat us. But if we play our game and do the little things, we are one of the best teams in the nation, if not the best.”