UC Merced men’s volleyball ready to take big step forward

David Noble knows there’s going to be a number of teachable moments.

With 12 of the 15 players on the UC Merced men’s volleyball team being underclassmen, the Bobcats will experience some ups and downs. But as UCM enters its second season of competition, Noble is banking on talent overcoming that inexperience more often than not.

“The first year, we were focused on filling the roster with local talent, primarily from the Bay Area and Fresno. If we got a couple kids from Southern California, that was a bonus,” Noble said. “Because we represented ourselves pretty well and got our name out there, we were able to expand our recruiting area and bring in a number of SoCal kids this year.

“We added 10 freshmen that make us deeper and more talented than a year ago.”

That group will complement six returners and one redshirt freshman (there will be two redshirts this season) who helped the team go 4-13 in its inaugural season. The hope is to at least double that win total. The journey begins tonight as the Bobcats open the season on the road against rival UC Santa Cruz. The first serve is set for 7 p.m.

“We’re going to take what we can get, but doubling our wins is a good goal,” sophomore middle blocker Samueal Hala’ufia said. “I think it’s a tangible one for us.

“There’s definitely a higher level of play. Our talent level has definitely improved, and I think the challenge for us is to maintain that level of fight that we took the court with a year ago.”

That shouldn’t be an issue with almost all of UCM’s statistical leaders back.

Senior setter Scott Livesay still makes the offense go. He’ll have a number of big hitters to distribute the ball in sophomores Hala’ufia, opposite hitter Daniel Sabzehzar and outside hitter Matthew Lostetter.

Merced’s freshman class is big and athletic, led by 6-foot-5 outside hitter Cole Smith. Noble said Jacob Shelton, Doug Hall and Colin Wilbur should all factor in the offense, as well. He also said freshman Tyler Cobian promises to be an instant fan favorite. The 5-9 outside hitter plays like his 6-5 teammates, capable of bringing the crowd to its feet with powerful spikes.

“Year two we’re looking for a big improvement, particularly winning more matches,” Livesay said. “Last year was more about figuring out where we belonged and how to play at this level. We made teams earn wins against us, particularly at the end of the year, where we were able to take some extra sets off of people.

“We did really well in our preseason against some of the top club teams around and even took a set off of a pro team. We’re curious to see how that’s going to translate to the season.”

The Bobcats will once again play as an independent. They’ll face a challenging schedule composed of Division I, II and NAIA teams.

This story was originally published January 8, 2015 at 7:07 PM with the headline "UC Merced men’s volleyball ready to take big step forward."