THE SCHEDULE
Match 14
at No. 6 Pepperdine (11-2, 7-2 MPSF)
Friday, Feb. 20 • 7 p.m.
Firestone Fieldhouse • Malibu
Live Audio/Video • Live Stats
The UC San Diego men's volleyball team has just one match this week, traveling to Malibu to take on sixth-ranked Mountain Pacific Sports Federation (MPSF) opponent Pepperdine (11-2, 7-2 MPSF) on Friday night, Feb. 20. First serve at Firestone Fieldhouse is set for 7 p.m. UCSD is 1-12 overall and 0-9 in MPSF play.
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 this Friday's tilt at Pepperdine. 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 @PepperdineMVB this Friday.
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 rounded out a four-match homestand last week with a pair of losses in conference play. The Tritons were outplayed by Pepperdine in a three-set defeat on Friday, Feb. 13. They then knotted their meeting with Stanford at one set apiece the next night, before the Cardinal scored the first seven points of the third game and eventually won the match in four. Tanner Syftestad produced season highs of 16 kills and four service aces in the latter contest, to go along with four digs and five total blocks. Freshman setter Milosh Stojcic dished out a season-best 37 assists, while Kirill Rudenko and Mathew Schnitzer collected career highs of 10 digs and six total blocks, respectively. Libero Tanner Howard had a team-high 12 digs.
DOUBLE-FIGURE TRITONS
UCSD has had 11 individual performances in double-figure kills, with six by Tanner Syftestad (12, 14, 10, 12, 13, 16), 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), Howard in two (11, 12), and Rudenko (10) and Syftestad (10) 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 13 matches at opposite, and produced double-figure kill totals in six, 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 2.67 kills per set, with a high of 16 at home against Stanford (2/14).
BIRD'S EYE VIEW
Tyler Bird, a true freshman out of Redondo Beach and Redondo Union High School, is third in the MPSF (through Feb. 15) and 14th nationally (through Feb. 17) in digs at 2.39 per set. He has served as the primary Triton libero for 10 of 13 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 began the two matches at BYU as the primary libero, and the home date with Stanford.
TRITON NOTES
Triton setters Milosh Stojcic (6.43) and José Carlos Martinez (6.09) are 12th and 13th, respectively, in the MPSF in digs per game ... UCSD as a team is sixth in the MPSF and 24th nationally in digs, averaging 8.80 per set ... The Tritons are 1-0 in five-set matches, 0-3 in four sets and 0-9 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 71-199 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. 6 Pepperdine (11-2, 7-2 MPSF) split last weekend on the road. The Waves first extended their win streak to six with a straight-set victory at UCSD on Friday. They then dropped a five-set thriller at fifth-ranked UC Irvine the next night. Pepperdine, the heavy favorite to take the MPSF crown in the preseason coaches' poll, had ascended to first after the result in UCSD, but has since fallen back to fourth, just one back in the win column behind a three-place tie for first between BYU, UCI and USC. The Waves are a perfect 5-0 at home in 2015. Seniors Parker Kalmbach and Josh Taylor are third and seventh (tied) in the league at 3.79 and 3.50 kills per set, respectively. Kalmbach put down a match-high 20 at UCI on Saturday. Legendary head coach Marv Dunphy is in his 32nd season in charge at his alma mater.
SERIES HISTORY
Pepperdine leads the all-time series, 45-3, and has won seven straight since a 3-2 Triton triumph in Malibu on March 12, 2011, including last Friday's meeting in La Jolla. The Waves have posted six 3-0 sweeps in a row. UCSD had previously taken both ends of the 2010 season series.
GEAR HERE
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UP NEXT
The Tritons have back-to-back three-match weeks coming up, with the first three at home beginning next Wednesday, Feb. 25, against non-conference foe Holy Names. That contest is set for an earlier 5 p.m. first serve inside RIMAC Arena. UCSD then resumes MPSF play with a pair of 7 p.m. starts against UC Santa Barbara and UCLA on Friday, Feb. 27, and Saturday, Feb. 28.
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