#2 UCLA Bruins Host Stanford Cardinal in MPSF Men’s Volleyball Tournament

The UCLA Bruins open the MPSF Men’s Volleyball Tournament tonight as the #2 seed. They will host the #7 seed Stanford Cardinal at Pauley Pavilion tonight at 7 pm PT.

Tonight’s game should be pretty easy. After all, the Bruins defeated the Cardinal twice this season, winning in four sets both times. The most recent match was just nine days ago at Pauley Pavilion.

There’s no reason to think that tonight’s match will be any tougher, especially after UCLA swept MPSF regular season champ BYU last Saturday night at Pauley. But, after tonight, UCLA may have a problem.

That’s because BYU will host next weekend’s semifinals and finals of the MPSF Tournament because they finished first in the standings. UCLA could have been the host for those games. Considering the fact that the Bruins and the Cougars each swept the other team at home, the location of next week’s final could end up being crucial.

How crucial?

Crucial enough that, if UCLA doesn’t win the MPSF Tournament, they could find themselves on the outside looking in at the NCAA Men’s Volleyball Tournament which will be played at Pauley Pavilion the first weekend in May because the number of at-large bids is small and could get smaller if Long Beach State should stumble in the the Big West Tournament.

But, tonight is the first step towards winning the MPSF Championship. At this point in the season, UCLA needs to simply needs to win every match they play. Can they do that?

Well, like I said, tonight’s match shouldn’t be too difficult, but they have to focus on the match at hand and not get caught looking ahead to next week.

Unfortunately, tonight’s match is not on TV and the live stream requires a subscription. So, what’s a Bruin fan to do? Well, first, there is live audio. Listen to the game on your computer or your mobile device by following the link in the sidebar above. You will also find a link for Live Stats, giving you another way to follow tonight’s match.

Of course, that’s all if you’re not heading to Pauley to actually watch it in person.

This is your UCLA Bruins vs. Stanford Cardinal MPSF Tournament match open thread.


Go Bruins!!!