CHRIS BACKLEY/Daily Bruin Senior outside hitter
Matt Komer attempts a block.
By Diamond Leung
Daily Bruin Senior Staff
For four years, Matt Komer has been through the wars with the
UCLA men’s volleyball team. He’s won championships.
He’s lost them.
For all that, the senior outside hitter will be honored tonight
at Pauley Pavilion on Senior Night in his last-ever regular season
home match.
“It’s my second-to-last home game,” Komer
said.
That’s because with a win tonight against Cal State
Northridge, the Bruins will clinch at least the fourth seed for the
MPSF tournament, along with homecourt advantage in the first
round.
“We want to make sure we host the first round of the
playoffs,” UCLA head coach Al Scates said.
The match takes on an added importance because No. 3 UCLA (23-6,
15-5) is currently on a three-match losing streak, its longest
since 1999. The team knows that the match against No. 10 CSUN
(13-13, 8-12) won’t be an easy win with the Matadors fighting
for the eighth and final seed in the MPSF tournament.
“They’re right on the bubble, so they’re going
to have a lot of motivation,” Scates said. “It’s
going to be huge for them.”
“They’re going to be all fired up, so I’m
expecting them to be five times better than they were last
time,” Komer said.
The Bruins last saw the Matadors on Feb. 27 and swept them.
UCLA will continue to play without freshman outside hitter
Jonathan Acosta and junior middle blocker Scott Morrow. Scates
hopes to have the players heal and be ready come playoff time.
The Bruins struggled in Hawai’i without the two starters,
losing two matches as well as their hold on the No. 2 position in
the MPSF race.
Now it comes down to another two matches ““ one at Pauley
and another at UC Irvine ““ to decide the fate of Komer and
the Bruins.