The second-year UC Santa Cruz men’s volleyball program is comingto town this weekend. And it couldn’t have come at a better time forSan Diego State.
“We need to build some confidence,” said SDSU coach Jack Henn.”We’ve played well at times, but we need to stay focused.”
SDSU has faced a slew of problems thus far into the season,starting with an arduous schedule. The Aztecs have dropped theirfirst five contests, four of which were against ranked opponents.
In its opening weekend SDSU fell to No. 11 University of Pacific(Jan. 15) and Stanford (Jan.16). The Aztecs then fell to No. 5 USC(Jan. 21) and No. 3 Pepperdine (Jan. 23) the next weekend. Finally,the team fell to No. 12 UC Santa Barbara (Jan. 29) this past weekend.
SDSU has also had to deal with the loss of starter Josh Sanders,who quit January 24. Sanders, the team’s right outside hitter andmiddle blocker, was averaging 2.64 kills per game through the firstfour matches.
“He (Sanders) decided not to be part of the team,” said seniorcaptain Sean Mackin. “We have to put it behind us and take it fromthere.”
If that wasn’t enough, Josh Cannon, one of the players expected tosee time in Sanders absence, also left the team earlier this week.
“We’re a team of 17 players,” Mackin said. “We’re not looking fora specific person. We all need to step up a little more.”
One thing the Aztecs will need to do more is blocking. Through thefirst five matches, SDSU has been outblocked by its opponents 70.5 to47.5.
“The way you can be successful is to serve well and by blockingballs,” said Henn. “We haven’t been blocking.”
In order to add a little height, Henn has moved up 6-foot-7freshman Phil Peterson to the first team.
“We’ve been looking at new things to give ourselves a differentlook,” Mackin said. “We’re asking some guys to do different thingsthan they’re used to.”
The team is experimenting with moving its go-to player MikeSzymanski, back and forth between the middle and right outside.
“That should give us a couple of new looks,” said Henn.
Headed by coach Ralph Smith, Santa Cruz comes to town with a 1-3record.
“I’ve never seen them, but I do know their team name,” said Hennof the Santa Cruz program, whose mascot is the Banana Slugs.
The Banana Slugs went just 4-16 last year in their inauguralseason. Since the majority of their games were against the Divsion Ilevel, the team ended the season ranked No. 10 in Divison III.
After opening the season with a win over the University ofCalifornia, the Slugs have fallen to UC San Diego, California Baptistand Long Beach State.
