MVB Hosts BYU on Friday and Saturday
COMING UP — UCLA (13-4), ranked tied for No. 6 in the American Volleyball Coaches Association (AVCA) poll, will host No. 2 BYU (16-2) in the final regular season matches of the year on Friday and Saturday in Pauley Pavilion presented by Wescom. Earlier this season, UCLA and BYU split two matches held in Provo. UCLA has won 8 of its last 9 overall matches, with the lone loss at No. 4 Pepperdine. The Bruins will honor seniors Sam Kobrine, Grant Maleski, Austin Matautia, Adam Parks and manager Alex Parks at the April 10 match. At the current time, no fans will be present for UCLA home matches.
• Apr. 9 - First Serve vs. BYU: 5 p. m. PT
Live Video/Audio: https://pac-12.com/live/ucla
Live Stats: http://stats.statbroadcast.com/broadcast/?id=341479
• Apr. 10 - First Serve vs. BYU: 5 p. m. PT
Live Video/Audio: https://pac-12.com/live/ucla
Live Stats: http://stats.statbroadcast.com/broadcast/?id=341480
LAST MEETING -- In the first road match of the 2021 season (Feb. 2), the Bruins dealt BYU a 3-1 setback (25-22, 25-21, 15-25, 25-22) in the Cougars' season-opener. UCLA outhit BYU .237 to .168 in that contest while Ethan Champlin led the attack with 11 kills to give the Bruins their first win at BYU since the 2009 season. BYU came back to split the series with a 3-0 sweep of the Bruins (25-16, 25-21, 25-17). The Cougars out hit UCLA .406 to .152 in that contest. The teams last met in Westwood on Feb. 9, 2019 in a 3-1 UCLA win in the John Wooden Center. The last time UCLA hosted BYU in Pauley Pavilion presented by Wescom was in a 2018 NCAA semifinal match won by the Bruins 3-1.
NOTES -- Kevin Kobrine was named the Sports Imports/AVCA Div. I-II National Player of the Week after his performance in a pair of matches at GCU -- career-high 16 kills on 20 swings, no errors, while hitting .800 in match one and combined 24 kills, 4 aces and .629 hitting % for both wins ... UCLA and BYU are ranked 1-2 in the MSPF in Hitting%, Opponent Hitting%, Set Assists Avg. and Aces ... UCLA's 13 aces against Pepperdine (3/11) are the most in a MPSF match this season ... The Bruins hold the hightest match hitting% this season in a MPSF match of .554 vs. Concordia (3/2) ... The Bruins have held seven opponents under .200 for a match, including BYU in their Provo win ... Ian Parish's 9.0 total blocks vs. Pepperdine (3/11) are tied for most in a MPSF match in 2021 ... Cole Ketrzynski has reached double-digits in kills in 11 matches this season ... his 0.58 aces/set average to begin the week ranked 5th in the NCAA and 2nd in MPSF ... had a career-best six aces at Stanford (3/23) after having a total of four for all of 2020 season ... Ketrzynski rates 8th in the NCAA in points/s (4.73) ... Sam Kobrine has set the Bruins to six matches of at least .350 attack percentage in the last 9 contests ... he has at least 40 set assists in 10 matches and rates 9th in NCAA in set assists (10.03/s) ... Kobrine had a career-best 61 set assists at Stanford (3/23) ... Kobrine remains the only player in the nation to have registered a triple-double in 2021 -- vs. USC (2/13) 14 kills, 15 assists and 10 digs ... Merrick McHenry has posted double-digit kills in 7 of last 9 matches with a best of 18 kills (4/2) at GCU ... had 17 kills (3/5) vs. Stanford ... career-best 6 block assists at GCU (4/3) and at Stanford (3/23) ... 10 kills with no errors on 12 swings vs. CUI (3/2) for a season-high .833 percentage ... McHenry began the week ranked 2nd in MPSF and 9th in NCAA in hitting % at .440 ... Ethan Champlin had a career-best 18 kills at Stanford (3/23) ... had season-high five aces v. Stanford (3/6) ... Austin Matautia had season-best 14 kills at Stanford (3/23) ... career-best 6 aces vs. Pepperdine (3/11) ... career-best 5 blocks at USC (2/20) .... Matautia hit .400, with 8 kills, in win at BYU ... Cole Pender had 11 digs in win over Stanford (3/6), one shy of his career best ... also 11 in opener against GCU ... Ian Parish had career-high 10 kills at GCU (4/3).
AT HOME -- The Bruins have posted a 6-1 home record in 2021 ... UCLA had an eight-match Pauley Pavilion win streak canceled with the USC loss (2/13/21) ... Over the past five-plus seasons, UCLA is 46-6 in matches played in Pauley Pavilion presented by Wescom (2016: 10-1--lost to UCI, 2017: 8-1--CSUN, 2018: 13-2--Long Beach 2xs, 2019: 7-1--Long Beach; 2020: 2-0; 2021: 6-1--USC).
MPSF -- Due to the possibility of an unbalanced number of league matches played this year, conference wins (NOT win percentage) will be the first criteria looked at to determine MPSF Tournament seeding (Apr. 22-24 at BYU). Conference win percentage will be the first tiebreaker.
MPSF Standings (4/6)
BYU 16-2
UCLA 13-4
Pepperdine 11-5
USC 5-10
Grand Canyon 4-10
Concordia 3-11
Stanford 3-13
Coming Up in the MPSF --
Fri., Apr. 9: BYU at UCLA; Grand Canyon at USC
Sat., Apr. 10: BYU at UCLA; Grand Canyon at USC
Fri., Apr. 16: Concordia at Grand Canyon; Pepperdine at Stanford
Sat., Apr. 17: Concordia at Grand Canyon; Pepperdine at Stanford
Thu., Apr. 22: MPSF Tournament Quarterfinals at BYU