Fresh off several tournaments and invitationals, the Sooners (5-2) play their home-opener against UCLA (7-1) at 5 p.m. Friday and face the Bruins at 2. p.m. Saturday at McCasland Field House.
OU began its season playing in the Ball State Tournament where it defeated Gonzaga 3-0, Purdue Fort Wayne 3-1 and Ball State 3-1. Following the tournament, OU played in the Asics Invitational where they lost to Oregon State 3-1 and defeated Boise State 3-1.
Last week, OU played in the Irish Invitational in South Bend, Indiana. OU swept Illinois 3-0 but fell to Notre Dame 3-2.
UCLA ranks 27th nationally in blocks per set while Oklahoma ranks 11th nationally in kills per set and 15th nationally in assists per set through seven matches.
Last December, OU hired Aaron Mansfield as head coach, who speaks fondly of his experience at OU so far.
“I think the biggest impact has been the players,” Mansfield said. “The players have been extremely open to the change, and change is hard for everyone. We’ve certainly come in here and done a lot of things differently than the last staff, and we’ve been very impressed and grateful for how open our players have been to all the changes.”
Mansfield’s biggest takeaway from his short time helming the Sooners is the resiliency they’ve shown.
“In our practice gym for the first two weeks, we were doing a lot of teaching. New systems, offensively and defensively, but we hadn’t really seen them compete as a team,” Mansfield said. “The first weekend in Ball State was pretty eye-opening for us just as far as winning a lot of close sets when we were behind.“
Mansfield says he’s excited about the team buying into the new system. He knows the Sooners will be tested when they play a very good UCLA team this weekend.
Mansfield noted the physicality of the Bruins and praised their versatility.
“Sometimes when you play teams, there’s a really high volume of sets that go to one or two attackers,” Mansfield said. “UCLA, they have four or five players that can set.”