THE SCHEDULE
Match 7
vs. RV Princeton (1-4, 0-0 EIVA)
Wednesday, Jan. 28 • 6 p.m.
RIMAC Arena • La Jolla
Live Video • Live Stats
Match 8
at No. 7 BYU (4-2, 3-1 MPSF)
Friday, Jan. 30 • 6 p.m. PT (7 p.m. MT)
Smith Fieldhouse • Provo, Utah
Live Audio/Video • Live Audio • Live Stats
Match 9
at No. 7 BYU (4-2, 3-1 MPSF)
Saturday, Jan. 31 • 6 p.m. PT (7 p.m. MT)
Smith Fieldhouse • Provo, Utah
Live Stats
The UC San Diego men's volleyball team heads into the first of three three-match weeks on its 2015 schedule. The Tritons first host Princeton (1-4, 0-0 EIVA) in a non-conference affair on Wednesday night, Jan. 28. First serve inside RIMAC Arena is set for an earlier-than-usual 6 p.m. They then travel to Provo, Utah, on Thursday, Jan. 29, to contest a pair of Mountain Pacific Sports Federation (MPSF) matches with No. 7 BYU (4-2, 3-1 MPSF) on Friday, Jan. 30, and Saturday, Jan. 31. The action inside the Smith Fieldhouse also gets under way at 6 p.m. PT (7 p.m. MT) each night. UCSD is 1-5 overall and 0-4 in MPSF play at the start of the week.
TICKET INFORMATION
UCSD students are admitted free to all regular-season home volleyball matches. General admission tickets are $8 for adults and $5 for visiting students, seniors and UCSD Alumni Association members. Tickets are available at the main entrance to RIMAC Arena on the night of the match. Please note that parking permits are required on the UCSD campus on weeknights. The closest parking lot to RIMAC Arena is the adjacent Hopkins Parking Structure. Permits can be purchased there.
MATCH COVERAGE
Once again this season, all UCSD home matches inside RIMAC Arena feature a live online video stream with public-address audio. The video is free, but a registration and login are required. A majority of road matches also have video, including Friday at BYU. There are in fact a number of ways to follow Friday's action in Utah, as it is both on national television on BYUtv, as well as on BYU Radio (Sirius XM 143). Those broadcasts are also available online. All contests, home and away, have live stats. Fans can access live coverage from the UCSD Schedule/Results page, or by clicking on the links at the top. Follow @UCSDtritons for in-match Twitter updates throughout the season, and @BYUvolleyball this Friday and Saturday.
CANNED FOOD DRIVE RETURNS
The Triton Athletes' Council (TAC) is sponsoring a canned food drive this week in conjunction with the California Collegiate Athletic Association (CCAA). UCSD is competing against other CCAA institutions, with all contributions donated to the San Diego Food Bank. Bins will be located on the concourse at RIMAC Arena for this Wednesday's men's volleyball match against Princeton, and both basketball doubleheaders this Friday, Jan. 30, and Saturday, Jan. 31. Triton fans are invited to join with UCSD student-athletes by dropping off canned goods on any of the three nights.
TRITONS ON TELEVISION IN 2015
UCSD has two matches slated for national television broadcasts during this current 2015 season, both on the road. The Tritons will be back on BYUtv for the second year in a row for their first of back-to-back dates at BYU this Friday night, Jan. 30, with first serve set for 6 p.m. PT (7 p.m. MT). They are then scheduled to make their debut on the Pac-12 Networks on Wednesday, March 4, at USC, in a contest starting at 7 p.m. Please check local listings on respective cable packages.
LAST TIME OUT
UCSD found the going tough last week with a pair of 3-0 league defeats. The Tritons first were unable to stay with then-fifth-ranked and still-unbeaten USC in their home opener on Thursday night, Jan. 22. They then traveled to Riverside the next day and suffered a disappointing straight-set loss to California Baptist. Tanner Syftestad put down 10 kills against the Trojans, with freshman Milosh Stojcic making his college debut and starting both matches at setter.
BIRD'S EYE VIEW
Tyler Bird, a true freshman out of Redondo Beach and Redondo Union High School, leads the MPSF and is second nationally in digs at 3.10 per set through matches played on Jan. 25. He has served as the primary Triton libero for all six matches in his first collegiate go-around, registering double-figure dig totals in three. Bird's season- and match-high 17 digs in the five-set victory at Grand Canyon on Jan. 10 rates statistically as the best performance in the conference so far in 2015. Bird has gotten to at least seven digs in each contest.
DOUBLE-FIGURE TRITONS
UCSD has had seven individual performances in double-figure kills, with three by Tanner Syftestad (12, 14, 10), two by Shayne Beamer (14, 10), and one each by Ian Colbert (10) and Kirill Rudenko (11). Rudenko now has three for his career, with a high of 12 (vs. GCU in 2014). Mathew Schnitzer (13 at CBU in 2014) is the only other current Triton who has hit double digits in kills for a match in his college career. Tyler Bird reached double figures in digs in three straight matches from Jan. 10-16 (high of 17 at GCU), and Syftestad (10) once this season. Tanner Howard had three such efforts a year ago, with a high of 19 at home against CSUN. Syftestad is the only Triton with a double-double.
STRONG START FOR SYFTESTAD
Tanner Syftestad has made a strong impression early in his UCSD career. The first-year Triton transferred after spending 2013-14 as a true freshman playing club volleyball at Chico State, which does not sponsor an intercollegiate men's volleyball program. The Carmichael native has started all six matches at opposite, and produced double-figure kill totals in three, including each of the first two with 12 at Concordia and 14 more at Grand Canyon. Syftestad added a team-high 10 digs in Irvine for his first double-double, registering eight more in Arizona. Four of his 14 kills at GCU came in the decisive fifth set, with the last two accounting for the Tritons' final two points. Syftestad thus picked up Off the Block National Freshman of the Week honorable mention on Jan. 12. He leads the Tritons at 2.65 kills per set.
GRAND CANYON SUPERLATIVES
UCSD's 3-2 win at Grand Canyon on Jan. 10 marked the first time it rallied to win from a two-set deficit since the 2013 season opener on Jan. 4, 2013, against Lewis on the first day of the UCSB Asics Invitational in Santa Barbara. The contest in Phoenix, Ariz., also was the first time that four Tritons reached double-figure kill totals, since a five-set loss in the 2013 season finale at home against Hawai'i (April 13, 2013). The result snapped a string of 15 straight losses for UCSD outside of La Jolla, the Tritons having gone a winless 0-14 on the road in 2014. They had last won a five-set decision at USC on March 16, 2013.
ROSTER BREAKDOWN
The 21-player 2015 UCSD roster includes no seniors, only three juniors, and just six returners who saw any court time in 2014. The three juniors are second-year Tritons Tanner Howard and Kirill Rudenko, and Mathew Schnitzer, who redshirted as a freshman in 2013. At 6-foot-6, Schnitzer is now a starting middle blocker who led the team in 2014 with a .312 hitting percentage (104-34-224), was second with 33 blocks, and fourth in kills. Rudenko, a native of Russia, produced 79 kills and nine aces as a part-time starter at an outside hitter spot. Howard contributed team bests of 2.05 digs per set and a .959 reception rate in just under half a season in 2014 at libero. UCSD has eight returners in all, including three redshirt freshmen, and 13 newcomers to the program. All three redshirt freshmen, and nine newcomers, have appeared in a match so far in 2015. The lone San Diego product is redshirt freshman middle Bryan Zhu, a graduate of Rancho Bernardo High School.
UCSD CAPTAINS
Team tri-captains for the 2015 season were designated as juniors Tanner Howard and Mathew Schnitzer, and redshirt freshman setter José Carlos Martinez. All three are first-time captains.
TEAM MANAGER TO TEAM CAPTAIN
Tanner Howard was the team manager as a true freshman in 2013 and for the first half of the 2014 season before injuries put him on the active roster on Feb. 27, 2014, and on the court as UCSD's primary libero a day later for a home date with non-conference foe Grand Canyon. In his very first appearance in a Triton uniform that night, he handled a match-high 16 digs over the five-set affair to help lead UCSD to its first win. The Pismo Beach native also put together a solid passing game, with zero reception errors in 27 opportunities, and added three assists. Howard contributed a team-high six digs the following night vs. UCSB, and reached double figures again with 10 in a 3-2 home win over CBU (3/13), with a season-high four assists. He then posted a season- and match-high 19 digs in a five-set home loss to CSUN (3/29), the highest single-match total for a Triton since former libero Chase Frishman also had 19 on March 30, 2012.
TRITON NOTES
UCSD as a team is sixth in the MPSF and 21st nationally in digs, averaging 8.24 per set ... The Tritons are 1-0 in five-set matches, 0-1 in four sets and 0-4 in three sets this season ... UCSD's 2015 schedule has 15 of 28 matches at home, including non-conference dates with Princeton and Ball State ... A program-high eight Tritons earned MPSF All-Academic distinction in 2014, including returner Mathew Schnitzer ... UCSD was picked to finish 12th in the 2015 MPSF race in the conference's preseason coaches' poll, with Pepperdine the overwhelming favorite.
HEAD COACH KEVIN RING
Kevin Ring is in his 10th season in charge at his alma mater. The 2009 MPSF Coach of the Year, he has a 71-192 overall record at the helm. Before being elevated to the head-coaching position on June 15, 2005, Ring spent the previous nine years as an assistant for the UCSD men's squad. He got his start at UCSD as the men's volleyball team manager from 1989-91 before playing for the Tritons for three seasons. Ring was the full-time manager for the USA men's national team from 1991-93 and continued on as a technical advisor through 1996. He accompanied Team USA to the 1992 Olympic Games in Barcelona and the 1996 Games in Atlanta. The 1992 squad left Spain with a bronze medal. To this day, Ring maintains strong ties to USA Volleyball, as he has been aiding women's national team head coach Karch Kiraly and his staff in preparing Team USA for the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio. Most recently, that involvement included serving as an on-court assistant to Kiraly for three matches in Bangkok, Thailand, on the final stop of the FIVB World Grand Prix preliminary rounds in August of 2014.
ABOUT THE TIGERS
Princeton (1-4, 0-0 EIVA) is a member of the Eastern Intercollegiate Volleyball Association (EIVA), and is receiving votes just outside of the top 15 in the latest national poll. Five of the 17 players on its 2015 roster, including freshman outside hitter Kendall Ratter out of nearby Encinitas (La Costa Canyon HS), hail from California. Princeton rounds out its California stay Wednesday in La Jolla, before opening EIVA play at NJIT on Feb. 6. All four of the Tigers' losses so far have been in straight sets against MPSF foes in California, including Sunday at No. 9 UCLA and Monday at No. 4 UC Irvine. Their lone victory was a five-set triumph over yet another MPSF opponent in CSUN at the UCSB Asics Invitational on Jan. 10. Sam Shweisky is in his sixth season as the Princeton head coach.
SERIES HISTORY
UCSD leads the all-time series, 14-5. The teams most recently met in La Jolla early in the 2013 season on Jan. 30, with the Tritons winning, 3-1. The Tritons previously dropped a five-set affair on Feb. 1, 2012, also at RIMAC Arena, after leading two sets to none.
ABOUT THE COUGARS
No. 7 BYU (4-2, 3-1 MPSF) is coming off of a two-match split against then-eighth-ranked UC Santa Barbara on the road this past weekend. The Cougars were swept by the Gauchos on Friday, before pulling out a five-set thriller the following night. La Jolla native Tyler Heap (La Jolla HS) hands out 8.75 assists per set. Fellow junior setter Robbie Sutton, a graduate of Rancho Bernardo High School, averages 8.09 assists a game. They are two of three San Diego products on the Cougar roster. Now in his fourth season in charge, Chris McGown earned AVCA National Coach of the Year and MPSF Coach of the Year distinction in 2013 after leading his alma mater to the MPSF crown and a spot in the NCAA national championship match.
SERIES HISTORY
UCSD has never beaten BYU, in 36 tries. The Cougars have posted four straight three-set sweeps.
GEAR HERE
UCSD Athletics has partnered with Advanced-Online to provide a web-based, on-demand option for UCSD apparel and merchandise. Fans have access to over 600 products that can be processed and shipped within 24 hours. Visit the site at UCSDTritonsGear.com.
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UP NEXT
Upon their return from Utah, the Tritons can look forward to a four-match homestand beginning Friday, Feb. 6, with non-conference foe Concordia, followed by No. 4 UC Irvine the next night. First serves inside RIMAC Arena are set for 7 p.m.
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