THE SCHEDULE
Match 12
vs. No. 4 Pepperdine (10-1, 6-1 MPSF)
Friday, Feb. 13 • 7 p.m.
RIMAC Arena • La Jolla
Live Video • Live Stats
Match 13
vs. RV Stanford (3-8, 2-5 MPSF)
Saturday, Feb. 14 • 7 p.m.
RIMAC Arena • La Jolla
Live Video • Live Stats
The UC San Diego men's volleyball team concludes its first of two four-match homestands for the 2015 season, this weekend against two Mountain Pacific Sports Federation (MPSF) opponents. The Tritons play host to fourth-ranked preseason MPSF favorite Pepperdine (10-1, 6-1 MPSF) on Friday, Feb. 13. They then take on Stanford (3-8, 2-5 MPSF) on Saturday, Feb. 14. First serve inside RIMAC Arena is set for 7 p.m. on each night. UCSD is 1-10 overall and 0-7 in MPSF play. The Tritons are 0-4 in La Jolla.
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. 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.
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 were on BYUtv for the second year in a row for their first of back-to-back dates at BYU on Jan. 30. They are scheduled to make their debut on the Pac-12 Networks on Wednesday, March 4, at USC, in a contest starting at 7 p.m. inside the Galen Center. Please check local listings on respective cable packages.
LAST TIME OUT
UCSD dropped a pair of home matches last week, losing in three sets to non-conference opponent Concordia on Friday, before taking fifth-ranked MPSF foe UC Irvine to four. Tanner Syftestad put down team highs in kills in each contest, with a match-best 12 and 13, respectively. He added a match- and season-best five total blocks against Concordia. Tyler Bird got to 12 digs to lead all players against the Eagles, when UCSD held a blocking advantage, 8.0-4.0, for the first time all year. The set two victory against UCI snapped a string of 25 straight game defeats. The Tritons hit a season-best .242 (37-14-95) against the Anteaters.
DOUBLE-FIGURE TRITONS
UCSD has had 10 individual performances in double-figure kills, with five by Tanner Syftestad (12, 14, 10, 12, 13), two by Shayne Beamer (14, 10), and one each by Ian Colbert (10), Luke La Mont (12) and Kirill Rudenko (11). Rudenko 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 has reached double figures in digs in four matches (high of 17 at GCU), and Syftestad (10) and Tanner Howard (11) one each this season. 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, that coming in the opener at Concordia (1/7).
SYFTESTAD LEADING ON OFFENSE
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 11 matches at opposite, and produced double-figure kill totals in five, 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 2.66 kills per set.
BIRD'S EYE VIEW
Tyler Bird, a true freshman out of Redondo Beach and Redondo Union High School, is third in the MPSF and 12th nationally in digs at 2.5 per set through matches played on Feb. 10. He has served as the primary Triton libero for nine of 11 matches, including the first seven, registering double-figure dig totals in four. Bird had a season- and match-high 17 digs in the five-set victory at Grand Canyon on Jan. 10. He collected at least seven digs in each of the first six contests, and has compiled six or more on eight occasions.
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. This year, Howard was the primary libero for the two matches at BYU.
TRITON NOTES
Triton setters José Carlos Martinez (6.38) and Milosh Stojcic (6.00) are 11th and 12th (tied), respectively, in the MPSF in digs per game ... UCSD as a team is seventh in the MPSF and 24th nationally in digs, averaging 8.49 per set ... The Tritons are 1-0 in five-set matches, 0-2 in four sets and 0-8 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 71-197 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 WAVES
No. 4 Pepperdine (10-1, 6-1 MPSF) has won five straight and is coming off of a four-set home decision over Stanford on Feb. 6. The Waves, the heavy favorites to take the MPSF crown in the preseason coaches' poll, are currently in third. They are 5-1 outside of Malibu in 2015, with a lone loss, 3-1, at USC on Jan. 16. Seniors Parker Kalmbach and Josh Taylor are fourth and sixth in the league at 3.70 and 3.61 kills per set, respectively. Legendary head coach Marv Dunphy is in his 32nd season in charge at his alma mater.
SERIES HISTORY
Pepperdine leads the all-time series, 44-3, and has won six straight since a 3-2 Triton triumph in Malibu on March 12, 2011, including five 3-0 sweeps in a row. UCSD had previously taken both ends of the 2010 season series.
ABOUT THE CARDINAL
Stanford (3-8, 2-5 MPSF) has struggled thus far in 2015, and has fallen out of the national poll, from No. 14 on Feb. 2, to now just in the others receiving votes category. The Cardinal are coming off of 3-1 defeats at Pepperdine and Concordia last weekend. They play at No. 5 UC Irvine Friday prior to heading further south into La Jolla to wrap up a season-long six-match road stretch. Stanford has dropped each of the first four, and is 1-5 away from home this year. The lone success was a five-set affair at California Baptist in its 2015 road debut on Jan. 16. The Cardinal will play seven in a row at home after Saturday night. John Kosty, the 2010 AVCA Division I-II National Coach of the Year, is in his ninth season in charge. Stanford hosts the 2015 NCAA Championship, May 7-9, having won the national title when the event was last held at Maples Pavilion in 2010.
SERIES HISTORY
Stanford leads the all-time series, 43-3, and has won the last seven meetings. UCSD last topped Stanford, 3-0, at Maples Pavilion on Feb. 11, 2011, when the Tritons were ranked No. 12 and defending national champion Stanford was No. 4. Set scores were 25-18, 30-28 and 25-16, with UCSD in control throughout, hitting .477 as a team to just .182 for Stanford. Former standout outside hitter Carl Eberts, a sophomore at the time, produced a match-high 15 kills.
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
The Tritons play just a single match next week, completing their home-and-home season series with No. 4 Pepperdine in Malibu on Friday, Feb. 20. First serve at Firestone Fieldhouse is set for 7 p.m.
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