THE SCHEDULE
Match 15
vs. Holy Names (1-4)
Wednesday, Feb. 25 • 5 p.m.
RIMAC Arena • La Jolla
Live Video • Live Stats
Match 16
vs. No. 8 UC Santa Barbara (10-5, 6-5 MPSF)
Friday, Feb. 27 • 7 p.m.
RIMAC Arena • La Jolla
Live Video • Live Stats
Match 17
vs. No. 9 UCLA (8-5, 4-5 MPSF)
Saturday, Feb. 28 • 7 p.m.
RIMAC Arena • La Jolla
Live Video • Live Stats
The UC San Diego men's volleyball team begins the second half of its 2015 regular-season schedule with a three-match homestand this week inside RIMAC Arena. The Tritons first host non-conference foe Holy Names (1-4) on Wednesday, Feb. 25, at an earlier 5 p.m. They then resume Mountain Pacific Sports Federation (MPSF) action against eighth-ranked UC Santa Barbara (10-5, 6-5 MPSF) on Friday, Feb. 27, as UCSD reaches the midway point of the league slate. That is followed by a date with No. 9 UCLA (8-5, 4-5 MPSF) on Saturday, Feb. 28. First serve for both of those contests is 7 p.m. The Tritons are 1-13 overall and 0-10 in MPSF play.
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, and @UCLAMVB this Saturday night.
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 next Wednesday, March 4, at USC, in a contest starting at 7 p.m. inside the Galen Center. Kevin Barnett and Kevin Wong are slated to be on the call for that one. Please check local listings on respective cable packages.
A LOOK BACK AT LAST WEEK
UCSD played just one match last week, falling in three sets at No. 6 Pepperdine in Malibu on Friday, Feb. 20, to complete the home-and-home season series with the heavy preseason favorites in the MPSF. Tanner Syftestad put down a team-high 12 kills on .300 hitting (12-3-30), while libero Tyler Bird had 10 digs. The Tritons hit a season-best .250 (34-11-92) as a team.
DOUBLE-FIGURE TRITONS
UCSD has had 12 individual performances in double-figure kills, with seven by Tanner Syftestad (12, 14, 10, 12, 13, 16, 12), 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 five 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 14 matches at opposite, and produced double-figure kill totals in seven, including each of the first two with 12 at Concordia and 14 more at Grand Canyon. Syftestad added a team- and season-high 10 digs at Concordia 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 2.76 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. 22) and 11th nationally (through Feb. 23) in digs at 2.46 per set. He has served as the primary Triton libero for 11 of 14 matches, including the first seven, registering double-figure dig totals in five. 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 nine 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
True freshman Triton setter Milosh Stojcic is 12th in the MPSF at 6.74 digs per game ... UCSD as a team is eighth in the MPSF and 23rd nationally in digs, averaging 8.79 per set ... The Tritons are 1-0 in five-set matches, 0-3 in four sets and 0-10 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 71-200 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 HAWKS
Holy Names (1-4) is located in Oakland, and is in the process of transitioning into the NCAA Division II. HNU has played just five matches thus far in 2015, with a lone victory at UC Merced, 3-1, on Jan. 21. The Hawks went 2-9 a year ago. Ali Oliver, who also guides the Holy Names women's program, is in her first season in charge of the HNU men.
SERIES HISTORY
UCSD and Holy Names have never previously met in men's volleyball.
ABOUT THE GAUCHOS
No. 8 UC Santa Barbara (10-5, 6-5 MPSF) is one of the hottest teams in the MPSF, as a winner of four straight matches and 11 consecutive sets. The Gauchos, currently sixth in the conference standings, are coming off of a pair of home sweeps over then-third-ranked USC and California Baptist last week. The Tritons still travel to Santa Barbara to take on UCSB a second time on Friday, April 10. Senior middle blocker Jake Staahl leads the league in hitting percentage at .471. Vaun Lennon, who played at UCSD from 2011-13, appears as a redshirt senior outside hitter on the 2015 UCSB roster. Rick McLaughlin is in his seventh season as the Gaucho head coach.
SERIES HISTORY
UCSB leads the all-time series, 32-8, and won three meetings in 2014, all in three-set fashion. The Gauchos blanked UCSD in the third-place match at their own Asics Invitational to begin that campaign, and again beat the Tritons 3-0 in the teams' two MPSF match-ups. The 2013 season saw a split as UCSB won 3-1 at home, with UCSD cruising in straight sets in La Jolla over the then-15th-ranked Gauchos in just 71 minutes. UCSB was swept in its two meetings with the Tritons in 2012, both contests coming during UCSD's five-match MPSF win streak late in the year. The Gauchos dropped a 3-1 decision at home before falling at RIMAC on March 31 by the score of 3-0. The Tritons have knocked off the Gauchos in seven of their last 16 meetings, with a pair of season sweeps in 2009 and 2012.
ABOUT THE BRUINS
No. 9 UCLA (8-5, 4-5 MPSF) is coming off of a critical 3-1 home triumph over crosstown rival USC, ranked third at the time, on Sunday night, Feb. 22. The Bruins still play at No. 3 UC Irvine on Friday night, prior to heading further south into La Jolla on Saturday. UCSD will round out the home-and-home season series with the Bruins at Pauley Pavilion in Los Angeles on Saturday, April 11. John Speraw, the current head coach of the U.S. men's national team, is in his third season in charge at his alma mater after 10 at UC Irvine, where he guided the Anteaters to three national championships over a six-year span, including the 2012 crown.
SERIES HISTORY
UCLA leads the all-time series, 55-6, and has taken five straight, though UCSD is 6-11 against the Bruins over the last 17 meetings since 2008. UCLA won twice last season, both 3-0. The Bruins also came out on top in all three match-ups in 2013, snapping a streak of five consecutive seasons with at least one Triton victory. The Bruins have produced four straight 3-0 sweeps over the Tritons. UCSD last won 3-1 inside RIMAC Arena on March 30, 2012.
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 have a second successive three-match week next week. They first play a nationally-televised (Pac-12 Networks) contest at No. 7 USC on Wednesday night, March 4, inside the Galen Center. UCSD then returns home to RIMAC Arena, hosting California Baptist on Friday, March 6, and 13th-ranked non-conference foe Ball State on Saturday, March 7. First serve for all three matches is slated for 7 p.m.
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