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Post by gobruins on Nov 16, 2019 6:49:46 GMT -5
uclabruins.com/news/2019/11/15/mens-volleyball-mvb-opens-play-in-sac-invitational-friday.aspxThe UCLA men's volleyball team opened play on Friday night with two split-squad matches in the annual SAC Fall Tournament on campus. Play continues on Saturday with the action beginning at 9 am. All matches will be held in the Student Activities Center (SAC) Gym on campus and will be best three-out-of five sets. There is limited court side seating available and admission is free. Please use the main entrance of the Student Activities Center located on the north end of the building in front of the plaza. FRIDAY RESULTS 11/15/19: CSUN (A) def. UCLA (A) 3-1 (25-20, 25-22, 21-25, 25-21) UCLA starters: Mads Jensen, Cole Ketrzynski, Austin Matautia, Merrick McHenry, Cole Pender, Matt Younggren, Grant Maleski UCSB (A) def. USC (A) 3-1 (25-21, 20-25, 25-23, 25-23) CSUN (B) def. UCLA (B) 3-2 (18-25, 25-23, 25-23, 20-25, 15-10) UCLA starters: Ian Eschenberg, Ethan Hill, Alex Knight, J.R. Norris IV, Ian Parish, Adam Parks, Cole Power UCSB (B) def. USC (B) 2-0 (25-18, 26-24) – decided to only play two out of three) SATURDAY SCHEDULE 11/16/19: 9:00am Court 1: UCLA (B) vs. UCSB (B) Court 2: CSUN (A) vs. USC (A) 11:30am Court 1: UCLA (A) vs. UCSB (A) Court 2: CSUN (B) vs. USC (B) 2:00pm Court 1: UCLA (B) vs. USC (B) Court 2: UCSB (A) vs. CSUN (A) 4:30pm Court 1: UCLA (A) vs. USC (A) Court 2: UCSB (B) vs. CSUN (B)
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Post by kolohekeiki on Nov 16, 2019 9:40:33 GMT -5
Any word on Rattray's injury?
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Post by socal3 on Nov 16, 2019 10:25:36 GMT -5
He was in a boot.
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Post by realist on Nov 16, 2019 23:31:19 GMT -5
He hurt ankle in USC tournament first match. Should hopefully be back for start of season in January.
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Post by socal3 on Nov 17, 2019 1:35:29 GMT -5
UCSB looked strong. Interesting they had DeWeese on the outside with Wilcox. I’ve not seen DeWeese play the left pin, but he was decent. He did some damage from the service line too. McGarry setting, Truman and Sanders in the middle and Yould libero. The real story was Xia. He was an absolute beast. Just skying and cranking from the right, left and backrow.
UCSB has super solid serving, passing and defense so they make you earn every point and it’s not easy to score on them because they dig everything. McGarry makes a difference too because of the speed he runs his offense and it’s mostly in system so it’s hard to get blockers positioned in time so lots of tools.
UCLA was a little bit of a hot mess with potential. Between Alex Knight. Ethan Hill, Cole K and Merrick there were some exciting moments, but none looked ready to take on a starting job. However, the 6’10 freshman setter Mads Jensen looked way better than what I expected. He scores a lot of points between his dump and his hard swing and isn’t afraid to attack. For a guy that big, he’s pretty agile too and set a pretty consistent location. Watched both Mads and Adam set and Speraw has two good options at setting to possibly interplay. I wouldn’t think a 6-2 is the best option thought because Mads greatest setting value is in the front row not backrow.
USC looked decent. Browning looked pretty good and the new freshman Libero, Gus Acord looked great.
CSUN’s middle Daniel Wetter is fun to watch and international player Maciej Ptaszynski from Gdańsk Poland has a rocket arm and Concordia transfer Luke Krzmarzick is adding help at OPP.
UCSB looked strongest at this early stage, but UCLA’s raw, young talent is exciting. USC and CSUN should be in the mix too.
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Post by ant on Nov 17, 2019 2:55:14 GMT -5
Socal3, did you watch the UCLA vs UCSB match that was scheduled to start at 11:30 but started earlier?
Ketrznski didn't look like a true freshman in that match and looked like he is ready to start. He was killing it. UCLA ran a 6-2 with Jensen and Kobrine and they have some kinks to work out with that offense, but I thought that was their best line up. Both can hit and both can play good defense. I was surprised at how well Jensen hit. Both Ketrnski and Jensen look like they are going to be big impact players as true freshmen. UCLA has a very talented and deep freshman class and redshirt freshman class.
Xia was jumping out of the gym for some of his hits. That guy can get up. And true freshman Chalmers played really well and got a lot of kills and passed really well. I wouldn't be surprised if he ends up being their OH2 for a lot of matches this year if he continues to play like he did in that match.
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Post by ant on Nov 17, 2019 3:02:40 GMT -5
I should have added that Norris looked really good for UCLA in the USC B vs UCLA B match. Norris serve was giving USC problems and he was pounding the ball. So UCLA has some good options if Rattray isn't ready to play for the start of the season.
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Post by socal3 on Nov 17, 2019 12:31:30 GMT -5
Socal3, did you watch the UCLA vs UCSB match that was scheduled to start at 11:30 but started earlier? Ketrznski didn't look like a true freshman in that match and looked like he is ready to start. He was killing it. UCLA ran a 6-2 with Jensen and Kobrine and they have some kinks to work out with that offense, but I thought that was their best line up. Both can hit and both can play good defense. I was surprised at how well Jensen hit. Both Ketrnski and Jensen look like they are going to be big impact players as true freshmen. UCLA has a very talented and deep freshman class and redshirt freshman class. Xia was jumping out of the gym for some of his hits. That guy can get up. And true freshman Chalmers played really well and got a lot of kills and passed really well. I wouldn't be surprised if he ends up being their OH2 for a lot of matches this year if he continues to play like he did in that match. I did see part of the UCLA-UCSB match. I think Cole looked pretty good, but still lacked some ball control elements for a UCLA OH starter. Looks like Speraw is looking at all his setter within different lineups. I can’t imagine Jensen not being part of the lineup at some point. I thought Parks looked decent too. Saw Norris score with a monster serve, but he lacks a lot of adjustment ability too. Saw him serve a ball into the bottom of the tape (almost went under the net) and miss a number of connections with his setter. He looked really green to me.
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Post by CoastalVB on Nov 17, 2019 18:56:20 GMT -5
Kobrine set one of the games and looked very good. He put the ball in some really good spots for the pins. That combined with his athleticism makes him a strong option. Jensen's height and ability to terminate in the front row is a big weapon. Once Rattray and Kofi come back It will be a different team. The freshman class add some great depth and more athleticism and height. Down 2-0 to SC and with 4 freshman in the line-up (Jensen, McHenry, Knight and Ketrznski) UCLA won games 3 and 4 pushing the game to a 20-18 score in the fifth. Typical Bruin/Trojan energy with both sidelines and the crowd heavily involved.
UCSB puts on some really good pressure with their service game. They will be very competitive this year.
Can't wait for the season.
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Post by trjnc on Nov 17, 2019 21:09:20 GMT -5
A parent told me there was a “foul out” rule in the tournament. If anyone missed 5 serves during the match they fouled out and had to come out of the match. Not surprisingly, UCLA had several foul outs. Both Ketryznski and Jensen fouled out of the SC A match. I’m not sure if anyone on CSUN, SC or UCSB fouled out, but I suspect Browning had 4 misses against UCLA as he got subbed out on his serve in the fifth set. Otherwise it would have been odd to sub him out as he was serving great all day.
Rosters were not all complete, especially CSUN, which did not list any new comers.
Brandon Rattray said he will be ready by the start of the season. Kofi is currently ineligible, but should be good to go by the start of the season too. I did not see Spencer Fredrick from UCSB and Sam Lewis was held out by SC.
Although each school had two squads, they did not necessarily represent true A or B teams. Considering that this was only November and coaches were not really concerned with winning, there was some pretty good volleyball this weekend.
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Post by hanson on Nov 17, 2019 22:16:15 GMT -5
Xia is a true story? From what I saw UCSB against Pepperdine and Hawaii, he showed no improvement in upper body strength and had the build and strength of a high schooler or freshman (eg. Scott Solan)
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VBSH 2
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Post by VBSH 2 on Nov 17, 2019 23:16:08 GMT -5
Did Cole Chea play for CSUN? If so, how did he do?
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Post by ant on Nov 18, 2019 12:49:45 GMT -5
I like the foul out rule they used. No one wants to watch a match with tons of missed serves. Teams have to be more strategic with how risky they want to go with their serves.
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Post by robonthemic on Nov 18, 2019 14:12:00 GMT -5
Great tidbits from everyone. MPSF is going to be hard to predict especially with so many new faces. I'll stick by my guns that BYU is the early favorite with it's international flavors (GGF-PUR, Gardini-ITA, Filippe de Brito Ferreira-BRA) along with Stanley at Setter. I'm also going to be watching Stanford to see how they train and develop in this 6 weeks before Men's D1-2 ball kicks off.
I'm still going to ride Hawaii as the pre-season Big West favorite, but I'm in the dark about UCSB-- however from the reports you guys have got here they could be possibly be near the top of the Big West. CSUN always starts strong with all the talent but hasn't stayed the course the entire duration of the season.
Good chatter folks, keep it up!
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Post by wilbur on Nov 18, 2019 15:27:07 GMT -5
UCSB shouldn't be a surprise. Coming off a good season last year and known returners and solid recruiting classes last 2 years. I am surprised how low many people had them on the prediction thread.
CSUN will likely take a few matches off higher ranked opponents like they always do but don't think they have the roster this year to see much time in top 10
BYU could be great if they can get passing and setting figured out but if they can't they won't. Best case I still don't see them beating UH at end of year.
MPSF prediction:
Stanford BYU UCLA Pepperdine USC Concordia Grand Canyon
BYU could move up or down exactly 1 spot, maybe down 2 if they continue to pass poorly and have flat matches like last year.
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