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this has become the annual best rivalry in MVB, no offense to Hawaii

sell-outs or near sell-outs at the Pyramid. UCLA has it's institutional cockiness and MVB background. and Beach has been a nemisis for them last 7 years, gnawing at Speraw

Vegas would have #4 UCLA as the actaul favorite vs. #1 Beach

last week's National PLayer of the week UCLA's Robinson and the prior week Beach's Bouchkov

this is personal for the coaches. respect, but you know they want to beat each other bad.

we got drummed last year by UCLA, no sugar-coating it. Guys I'm sure will be amped, just so they control enough to not be over-hyped with service errors.

it'll be like a boxing match with the staring, glaring across the net and UCLA wants to alpha dog Beach as much as Beach will be junkyard aggressive to win points.

while the Beach has looked mostly solid, the SOS isn't near what UCLA has faced

this Beach team coming in was a bit of a question mark. but 3 significant things so far

Godbold's OH dominance. not sure anyone saw this, and yes, the SOS is one thing. still you can see having Godbold now hitting back-row attackes is a tremdous weapon, combined with his continued solid blocking for an OH

serving Improvement. again, against the SOS so far, but adding in Varga's serve, and having Towrie start off this year (he struggled early in serving last year) has made Beach more effective overall

More Depth and Strength. Knipe, Bloom, and Harlan all look more muscular. Harlan's serve is even better, he's a natioanl leader in aces, and doing that as a serving sub. He comes in cold, and seamlessly off the bench, never seems fazed. Herschtinovich as an opp also has an impressive serve and looked very good over the weekend, granted the competition

Bouchkov: Bulgarian frosh is just uber athletic, demonstrative, and really good. there'll be some words across the net this weekend, lol

Where to improve.

#1 question mark has to be at Opp, adn Varga's attack. his hitting % is way too low against that SOS, and has to improve. maybe mental, cause his serving is absolutely top 5 in the country. maybe experience dealing with block, he's gonna have to find a way to control his attacks.

#2: Passing will get tested this weekedn as UCLA targets anyone not named Briggs or Sortoris. Varga & Godbold still have to prove they can handle serves

#3: Godbold's serve. opposite of Varga. has to be a toss issue, he's too good to be missing and the way his missing for it to be any other reason. If Godbold can get that dialed, an already tough serving team will only get better.