Match of the Week: #4 UCLA vs. #3 Stanford
UCLA hosts Stanford in LA on Thursday. Both Stanford and UCLA had big matches last week. UCLA lost twice to BYU in Provo while Stanford beat Long Beach and Cal State, Northridge. This caused UCLA to drop from #1 last week to at #4 behind Stanford in the AVCA Coaches Poll this week. You can see how the teams compare below.
Both teams have had tremendous seasons thus far. Stanford has a slight edge in passing, attacking, and blocking, while UCLA has a more significant serving advantage. Both teams are roughly the same when it comes to digging. When head-to-head ratings were compared, Stanford received a greater boost to predicted win percentage. With this being the last week of play for the MPSF, this match could be critical for two major reasons. First, a Stanford loss could seal a first place seed for BYU. Second, UCLA and Long Beach are tied for third place, meaning a loss would affect the seeding of the MPSF tournament. With a maximum of three teams from the MPSF going to the National Championship tournament, seeding in the MPSF tournament will be very crucial in determining which teams would be selected.
Rally of the Week
Here is our Rally of the Week. It features the match between CSUN and Pepperdine on April 2nd. If you have missed any of our Rally of the Week videos, you can find them here on our blog or on Our YouTube channel.
