MVB Set to Take on No. 6 UC Irvine Twice

THIS WEEK — UCLA (13-1), ranked No. 2 in the American Volleyball Coaches Association (AVCA) will play a home-and-away series with No. 6 UC Irvine (9-3) from the Big West Conference on Friday at Irvine (7 p.m. on ESPN+) and Sunday (5 p.m.) in Pauley Pavilion presented by Wescom.
• First Serve at UC Irvine (Fri. Feb. 24): 7:00 p.m. PT
Live Stats: https://ucirvinesports.com/sidearmstats/mvball/summary
TV/Video: ESPN+ https://www.espn.com/watch/player/_/id/185e1c29-f553-42cc-ba4f-fa309f559592/redirected/true

• First Serve vs. UC Irvine (Sun. Feb. 26): 5:00 p.m. PT
Live Stats: http://stats.statbroadcast.com/broadcast/?id=439513
TV/Video: https://pac-12.com/live/ucla

The Bruins have posted an 8-0 mark this season against Big West opposition, while UC Irvine has suffered all three of its losses at the hands of Mountain Pacific Sports Federation (MPSF) teams (1-BYU, 2-Grand Canyon). The Anteaters and Bruins met twice last season with UCLA winning both contests, at UC Irvine in four, and at UCLA in five sets.
Last week, UCLA opened MPSF play with a pair of 3-0 sweeps over No. 8 BYU. UCLA's 13-1 season start is its best since the 2018 squad opened with 14 wins in its first 15 matches. The 2005 squad started with a 15-1 record while the 1998 team won its first 16 matches. Coach John Speraw is approaching a couple of milestones as he currently owns a UCLA coaching record of 199-91 and an overall record of 398-202. Speraw was the head coach at UC Irvine from 2003-2012 and won three NCAA Championships (2007, 2009, 2012) with the Anteaters. UCLA's lone loss of the 2023 season, at Penn State (2/4/23), snapped a nine-match win streak which was the longest season-opening Bruin run since the 2016 team won its first 10 matches. Next week, UCLA returns to MPSF action with a pair of matches against Concordia-Irvine in a home-and-home arrangement.

UCLA AND RANKINGS -- UCLA remained at No. 2 in this week's AVCA Poll. The Bruins earned the No. 2 spot in the pre-season AVCA poll for the fourth time in the past five seasons. UCLA has now been ranked as high as No. 2 in the AVCA poll at some point in 7 of the last 8 seasons (not in 2021). The Bruins finished the 2022 season listed fourth in the final AVCA poll after being as high as No. 1 for nine weeks during the year ... ... UCLA has ended a season ranked No. 1 in the AVCA poll a record nine times (1987, 1989, 1993, 1994, 1995,1996, 1998, 2000, 2006) over the years.

TEAM NCAA RANKING NOTES -- UCLA is ranked 2nd nationally with an average of 2.07 aces per set which is helped by a school-record tying 18 aces by the Bruins against UCSD (1/6). The Bruins began the week 2nd in the nation in hitting percentage with a .378 mark. The Bruins are also listed in the top 10 nationally in kills (5th-12.67), set assists (5th-12.07) and blocks (6th-2.54).
National Rank Comparison UCLA        UC Irvine
Aces                                    2nd 2.07 13th 1.72
Kills                                     5th 12.67 14th 12.16
Blocks                                  6th 2.54 5th 2.61
Digs 26th 8.20     25th 8.21
Hit % 2nd .378 7th .339
Oppt. Hit % 11th .219 23rd .239

MPSF -- The Bruins return to MPSF play next week with a pair of contests against CUI (Concordia-Irvine) ... The Bruins began MPSF play against BYU with a pair of home wins on Feb. 17-18 ... UCLA, which finished atop the 2022 MPSF standings with an 11-1 record, is picked to repeat by the coaches in 2023. The 2023 Pre-season MPSF coaches poll: 1-UCLA, 2-Pepperdine, 3-Stanford, T4-Grand Canyon, T4-USC, 6-BYU, 7-Concordia, Irvine. This year's MPSF Post-Season Tournament, which determines the league's automatic bid to the NCAA Championship Tournament, will be held at Stanford as the location will rotate among the league schools going forward.

Standings (2/21) MPSF Overall
Grand Canyon   2-0   13-0
UCLA                  2-0   13-1
Concordia-Irvine 0-0 5-7
Pepperdine         1-1   9-5
Stanford              1-1   8-5
BYU                    0-2   8-4
USC                    0-2   6-6
Coming Up:
Feb. 22 - Grand Canyon at Pepperdine
Feb. 24 - UCLA at UC Irvine; Grand Canyon at Pepperdine; Stanford at USC; BYU at Concordia-Irvine
Feb. 25 - BYU at Concordia-Irvine
Feb. 26 - UC Irvine at UCLA; Grand Canyon at Pepperdine; Stanford at USC

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