Traveling to Hawaii this weekend, the UCLA men’s volleyball team is leaving their swimming trunks, sunscreen and beach towels at home. Instead they are packing their “A” game and a winning mentality.

Beginning today, the No. 3 Bruins (2-1) will play in the Outrigger Hotels Invitational in Honolulu, Hawaii. First up for UCLA is No. 9 Lewis College (1-1) today, followed by Springfield College (0-0) on Friday. They end with a Saturday night showdown against familiar foe No. 13 Hawaii (1-1).

“We’re really excited about it because it would be a three-game winning streak going into our first season game,” redshirt senior quick hitter Weston Dunlap said. “It’s important to us.”

The Bruins’ toughest opponent should come early in Lewis College. The Flyers are stronger than their 1-1 record indicates. They defeated No. 10 Pepperdine to open the season but failed to repeat their performance against the Waves the next night in a 3-2 loss.

“Lewis could win the MIVA (Midwestern Intercollegiate Volleyball Association) and be an automatic,” coach Al Scates said. “We had a preseason match that didn’t count in the standings and we beat them in three. We just played our opponents, three opponents, two out of three, so they were exhibitions. It was a deuce game in the third, so we expect tough competition from them.”

That game will be UCLA’s first match since their 3-1 loss against UC Irvine. Despite not getting the win, the Bruins did discover areas for improvement. They allowed a .343 hitting percentage to the Anteaters. But this is not they level of defensive play UCLA will allow to slide by.

“We just need to start aiming for block more,” Dunlap said. “We’ve kind of been avoiding the block which makes the ball just go out of bounds so we need to aim for the block.”

However, Scates pointed to a bigger issue: UCLA’s poor hitting against UC Irvine. The Bruins hit an atypically low .242 in that game.

“We out-blocked UCI and we out-dug UCI. What we didn’t do was out-hit them. So we want to improve the performance of our outside hitters particularly,” Scates said. “The times we have trouble scoring is when we get a bad pass and we go to the outside. So we want to keep improving our passing, which is good already, and we want to make it excellent. And we have to improve our outside hitting.”

If UCLA is to repeat last year’s undefeated showing in the Outrigger Hotels Invitational, redshirt senior outside hitter Jeremy Casebeer and sophomore outside hitter Gonzalo Quiroga will have to elevate their game. Quiroga has shown the potential to dominate the competition. He led the team in kills last year even though his teammate, Dunlap, led the team and nation in hitting percentage.

The most important game of the weekend may come against Hawaii. The Warriors are also in the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation and will face the Bruins twice more this season.

“Hawaii always plays us very strongly the last night in front of a great home crowd,” Scates said. “So we’re looking forward to three days of good competition.”

Compiled by Chris Kalra, Bruin Sports contributor.