THE SCHEDULE
Match 26
at No. 9 UC Santa Barbara (14-9, 10-9 MPSF)
Friday, April 10 • 7 p.m.
Rob Gym • Santa Barbara
Live Video • Live Stats
Match 27
at No. 12 UCLA (11-12, 7-12 MPSF)
Saturday, April 11 • 7 p.m.
Pauley Pavilion • Los Angeles
Live Video • Live Audio • Live Stats
The UC San Diego men's volleyball team plays two Mountain Pacific Sports Federation (MPSF) road matches this week. The Tritons (2-23, 0-19 MPSF) are at No. 9 UC Santa Barbara (14-9, 10-9 MPSF) on Friday, April 10, and at No. 12 UCLA (11-12, 7-12 MPSF) on Saturday, April 11. First serve at Rob Gym and Pauley Pavilion, respectively, is set for 7 p.m. on both nights.
MATCH COVERAGE
This week's road matches feature free video streams, with a separate audio broadcast for Saturday's contest at UCLA. Both also 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 @ucsbgauchos and @UCLAMVB this weekend.
LAST TIME OUT
UCSD lost to No. 13 CSUN (3-1) and No. 10 Long Beach State (3-0) in its final two home dates of 2015 last Friday and Saturday, respectively. Friday marked a second successive match in which the Tritons won the opening set, both times by the identical score of 25-23, before falling in four. Tanner Syftestad's match-high 16 kills were not enough that night against the Matadors, who put four players in double-figure kills. LBSU was dominant on Saturday, out-blocking UCSD, 14.0-1.0, while hitting .400 with eight service aces.
DOUBLE-FIGURE TRITONS
UCSD has had 19 individual performances in double-figure kills, with 12 by Tanner Syftestad (season-high 16 three times), two by Shayne Beamer (14, 10) and Alec Flowers (15, 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 three (11, 12, 10), 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 is a first-year Triton who 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 25 matches at opposite, and produced double-figure kill totals in 12, including each of the first two at Concordia (12) and at Grand Canyon (14), and a trio of 16-kill efforts. 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 gained that distinction a second time on March 2 after achieving match highs of 16 kills in a win over Holy Names (2/25) and 11 in a loss to UCLA (2/28). Syftestad leads the Tritons at 2.76 kills per set. He is 13th in the MPSF and 48th in the country at 3.425 points per set, and also 47th nationally in blocks per set (0.84).
FLOWERS BLOOMING
Alec Flowers, a true freshman originally listed as a middle blocker, has earned his first seven collegiate starts at an outside hitter position in UCSD's seven most recent matches. He was slated to redshirt at the start of the season, and was serving as the team manager with data analysis responsibilities. Flowers made his college debut on Feb. 13 at home against Pepperdine. In his first start at home against California Baptist on March 6, Flowers notched 15 kills, and provided team highs in both kills and digs in each of his first two starts, totaling 23 kills and 15 digs. He narrowly missed his first collegiate double-double with 10 kills and a season-high nine digs on March 28 against Hawai'i.
BLOCKING SUPERLATIVES AT STANFORD
UCSD's 14.0 total team blocks at Stanford on March 13 were its most since compiling 14.0 in a five-set loss at UC Irvine on March 31, 2013. Bryan Zhu's 10 total blocks were the most by a Triton in a single match in 2015. Zhu thus became the first Triton to reach double figures in blocks for a match since Cheyne Hayes (11) in a five-set triumph at USC on March 16, 2013. The 14.0 team blocks were UCSD's most in a three-set contest since accumulating 17.5 in another 3-0 loss at Stanford on March 10, 2007. That is therefore the highest total for the Tritons in a three-set match in the rally-scoring era (since 2011). Zhu's was likewise the most blocks in a three-setter since Gerald Houseman came up with 12 in that same match at Stanford, with his effort also a program first in terms of double-digit blocks in a three-set match in the rally-scoring era.
BIRD'S EYE VIEW
Tyler Bird, a true freshman out of Redondo Beach and Redondo Union High School, is 12th in the MPSF and 30th nationally in digs at 1.97 per set. He has opened as the Triton libero for 15 of 25 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 five or more on 12 occasions.
TRITON NOTES
Tanner Syftestad has either paced the squad or shared the lead in kills in 15 of the Tritons' 25 matches this season, including six in a row from Feb. 14-March 4 ... Other kill leaders have been Shayne Beamer, Alec Flowers, Luke La Mont, Kirill Rudenko and Mathew Schnitzer twice each, and Ian Colbert once ... Triton setters José Carlos Martinez (6.60) and Milosh Stojcic (6.47) are 12th and 13th, respectively, in the MPSF in assists per set ... UCSD as a team is 10th in the MPSF and 27th nationally in digs, averaging 8.88 per set ... Prior to hosting Hawai'i on March 27-28, UCSD had last entertained the nation's No. 1 team on Jan. 30, 2014, when UCLA came south for a 3-0 victory at RIMAC ... The 3-1 loss to UH on March 28 marked the first time the Tritons took a game from a top-ranked side since another 3-1 home defeat to BYU on Jan. 11, 2008, with 10 successive three-set losses in between ... The Tritons are 1-0 in five-set matches, 0-6 in four sets and 1-17 in three sets this season ... UCSD's 2015 schedule had 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.
TRITONS ON TELEVISION IN 2015
UCSD had two matches on national television this season, both on the road. The Tritons made their debut on the third-year Pac-12 Networks on Wednesday night, March 4, at No. 7 USC, with former Olympians Kevin Barnett and Kevin Wong on the call inside the Galen Center. UCSD was on BYUtv for the second year in a row for its first of back-to-back dates at BYU on Jan. 30.
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 20-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 12 newcomers to the program. All three redshirt freshmen, and 10 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 has opened at libero in 10 matches, including both at BYU and six of the last seven. He collected 11 digs at BYU on Jan. 30, a season-high 12 vs. Stanford on Feb. 14, and 10 against Hawai'i on March 28.
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 72-210 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 GAUCHOS
No. 9 UC Santa Barbara (14-9, 10-9 MPSF) dropped a five-set home decision to No. 4 UC Irvine on Wednesday night. Set scores were 20-25, 25-23, 25-22, 21-25 and 15-6. The Gauchos will be hosting the Tritons for their final regular-season home contest on Senior Night Friday. Vaun Lennon, who played at UCSD from 2011-13, will be one of four seniors honored prior to first serve. UCSB currently sits sixth in the conference standings, and has yet to lock up a spot in the MPSF Tournament. Rick McLaughlin is in his seventh season as the Gaucho head coach.
SERIES HISTORY
UCSB leads the all-time series, 33-8, and has won four straight meetings, all in three-set fashion, including this year's earlier contest in La Jolla on Feb. 27. The Gauchos were victors three times in 2014, blanking UCSD in the third-place match at their own Asics Invitational to begin that campaign, and beating the Tritons 3-0 in the teams' two MPSF match-ups. The 2013 season saw a split as UCSB won 3-1 at home, before UCSD cruised in straight sets in La Jolla over the then-15th-ranked Gauchos in just 71 minutes. UCSB was swept in its two dates 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 17 meetings, with a pair of season sweeps in 2009 and 2012.
ABOUT THE BRUINS
No. 12 UCLA (11-12, 7-12 MPSF) is coming off of a 3-0 loss at No. 3 Pepperdine on Tuesday night. Set scores were 25-21, 25-21 and 25-19. The Bruins still host No. 4 UC Irvine on Friday night, prior to entertaining the Tritons on Saturday. They are currently on the outside looking in with regard to the eight-team MPSF Tournament, sitting in ninth, half a match back of Stanford with three to play. 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, 56-6, and has taken six straight, though UCSD is 6-12 against the Bruins over the last 18 meetings since 2008. UCLA won 3-0 in La Jolla back on Feb. 28, and also swept both match-ups last season. The Bruins came out on top three times in 2013, snapping a streak of five consecutive seasons with at least one Triton victory. The Bruins have produced five straight 3-0 sweeps over the Tritons. UCSD last won 3-1 inside RIMAC Arena on March 30, 2012.
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UP NEXT
UCSD concludes the 2015 season at No. 4 UC Irvine on Saturday, April 18. First serve at the Bren Center is set for 7 p.m.
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