LA JOLLA, Calif. - The 14th-ranked UC San Diego men's volleyball team (4-11, 1-9 Mountain Pacific Sports Federation) hits the road to begin the second-half of conference play this week. On Wednesday, UCSD squares off against No. 3 UCLA (9-6, 8-4 MPSF) at 7:00 p.m. in Los Angeles. On Friday, the Tritons travel to No. 11 UC Irvine (7-8, 3-7 MPSF) to face the defending national champions at 7:00 p.m. UCSD faced both opponents at the UC Santa Barbara tournament earlier this season, losing to the Bruins in five sets and dropping a four set decision to the Anteaters. This will be UCSD's first of three consecutive road trips.
Last week UCLA defeated UC Santa Barbara in four sets at UCSB and defeated No. 1 Cal State Northridge in five sets in Pauley Pavilion. It was the second time this season that the Bruins have defeated the Matadors. The Bruins enter the week having won five of their last six and eight of their last 10 matches.
UCLA is led by Garrett Muagututia with 4.17 kills per set and Jack Polales with 3.75 kills per set. Thomas Amberg has a team-high 1.09 blocks per set and Tom Hastings averages 2.42 digs per set. Kevin Ker is the setter with 10.00 assists per set and UCLA hits at a .295 team average.
Last week UC Irvine defeated Pacific and lost at No. 5 Stanford. UCI also has wins against MPSF opponents Pepperdine and Long Beach State.
UC Irvine is led by Carson Clark with 5.33 kills per set while Jordan DuFault adds 4.07 kills per set. Bryan Simmons averages a team high 1.35 blocks per set and Kevin Welch averages 2.23 digs per set. Jess Schmitz and Anthony Spittle have split setting duties, each averaging over 11 assists per set.
The Tritons lost two matches to BYU last week. In Friday's match, the Tritons put together a strong match, falling to the Cougars 26-30, 32-30, 30-28, 30-27. Spangler became UCSD's career kills leader in the loss.
Spangler is now up to 1,316 career kills and will continue to distance himself from second place held by Jim Waller with 1,301 kills. Spangler has also moved up to the No. 2 spot in career aces. Spangler has 76 career aces, trailing Waller who had 80 aces from 2001-04.
Frank Fritsch is in fourth place on the career kills chart, entering the week with 1,187 kills. In third place is former Triton Tom Black who had 1,268 kills from 1993-96.
Phil Bannan is third all-time at UCSD with 2,848 assists. Bannan has the rest of this year and next year to reach the all-time UCSD mark held by Brooks Dierdorff with 3,867 assists from 2004-07.
