These last four days of arduous practice, these last four months of gritty regular season action, these last four years of UCLA volleyball and these last 50 years of one-of-a-kind coaching all come together Saturday night.
As UCLA travels to Irvine on Saturday night for the first round of the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation playoffs, the team begins a win-or-go-home path to the NCAA Championship.
Five of the team’s six offensive starters are seniors and coach Al Scates is in his 50th and final year of coaching. A loss will, likely, end these seniors’ UCLA volleyball careers and Scates’ illustrious tenure as a Bruin and an icon.
For Scates, the prospect that Saturday could possibly be his last game isn’t one that’s he’s been able to let go of.
“Once the playoffs start, every match could be your last one. I woke up at 4:30 (Monday) morning and started thinking about it. … It’s on my mind, you know, so (winning) is all I’m going to be working on this week,” Scates said.
With so much to lose, how UCLA handles the pressure will be a decisive factor.
“We all know what happens if we lose. We know what our reputation will be, how much we’ll regret things in the future if we lose. So there’s tons of pressure if we lose,” senior quick hitter Weston Dunlap said.
“At the same time, we know we can’t really think about it in the moment. We have to see it as just a game where we come out and play our best in every way, and we can’t really think about what the game means or anything like that.”
UCLA, though, will have its opportunity as it heads into a blockbuster matchup against UC Irvine.
The Bruins fell in the first match between the two, 3-1, and again in a five-set thriller, 3-2, until finally sweeping the Anteaters on the road.
“Passing and serving (are key). I think we are a better blocking team and we are both very solid offensively,” redshirt senior outside hitter Jeremy Casebeer said on what will determine the outcome.
Dunlap, though, pointed to another factor that could decide UCLA’s fate.
“We know that when we came out against Stanford,we did not mentally come out the way we needed to. We know if we do mentally come out the way we need to against UCI, then we will win,” Dunlap said. “It’s all about us; it’s all about how we mentally focus. If we show up mentally we will win. If we don’t, we will lose.”