By Grace Wen
Daily Bruin Senior Staff
In the battle between the Davids and Goliaths of this world,
chalk one up for Goliath.
Despite the dueling bands and the noise of 850 people in North
Gym, UCLA defeated cross-town rival, USC, 15-5, 15-9, 8-15, 13-15,
15-9 in a five-game thriller that took over two hours to
complete.
"I know UCLA is working through some things, but I thought UCLA
was a little bit steadier than we were," USC head coach Lisa Love
said. "They made fewer errors than we did. It was not a very pretty
match. I don’t think either coach will walk away and feel very
excited about the quality of play."
Excited or not, the Bruins will take the win and improve to 10-3
overall and 3-0 in the Pacific 10. And with two losses in
conference play, the Trojans (7-4, 1-2) are searching desperately
for a way to stay competitive in the Pac-10 race.
With sophomore outside hitter Chaska Potter sidelined by a skin
infection, UCLA got a much-needed lift from first-year player
Jennifer Wittenburg. Starting for the first time in her college
career, Wittenburg hammered down 14 kills to lead all UCLA
hitters.
"It was crazy," Wittenburg said. "It’s the UCLA-USC big game.
It’s the biggest game of the year. I had the chance to start, come
in and hopefully do a good job. They said I stepped up like I
should’ve. It was awesome. It was a great feeling."
Apparently unbothered by the raucous USC crowd, the Bruins
quickly jumped out to a two-game lead.
"It was weird out there," middle blocker Kim Krull said. "It
didn’t feel like we were winning by as much as we were. I was
amazed every time I looked at the scoreboard. I think we just did a
great job siding out and people were serving well."
However, the Bruins were thrown off-balance in the third and
fourth games by changes in the Trojan lineup. Love made adjustments
at both setter and outside hitter, inserting Laurie Hill and Jeanne
Vetter for Janice Mounts and Vesna Dragicevic, respectively. It
worked.
"We were tired," UCLA head coach Andy Banachowski said. "I think
we felt we sort of had things in control. ‘SC made some changes and
things were different for us all of a sudden."
Senior middle blocker Kim Krull agreed. "It affects you just
because you get used to blocking certain people and their
tendencies," Krull said. "And then when it switches, it’s like
starting a new game and you have to figure it out. It’s always kind
of awkward at the beginning."
The Bruins began to adjust, however, towards the end of game
four. Facing game point and a 8-14 deficit, UCLA sided out on a
dump by setter Kim Coleman. After a kill by outside hitter Tanisha
Larkin and a Coleman block on Vetter, USC was forced to call
time-out. The woes continued, however, as the Trojans committed a
hitting error, which was then followed up by an ace by Alison
Zamora. The Bruins were only down by three.
USC called their second time-out of the game after Coleman
caught the defense off-guard with another dump, bringing UCLA
within two points (Coleman would finish the night with eight kills
and 44 assists). Although a kill by Krull brought the Bruins within
one, the Trojan’s Jennifer Kessy fired down a kill of her own to
close out the game (Kessy and USC middle blocker Jasmina Marinkovic
led all hitters with 21 kills).
However, the fourth-game comeback provided the Bruins with a
psychological boost.
"Even though we lost that game, everybody was pretty pumped up
because we’d made such a good run at that point," Banachowski said.
"We knew we had some momentum going for us. Yeah, we would have
loved to steal the fourth game, but (our momentum) carried us over
into the fifth."
In game five, the Bruins showed why Volleyball magazine rated
this year’s recruiting class the best in the nation. Three freshmen
started in the front row, led by Wittenburg who won the sideout by
crushing the ball for a score on the first point.
After leading 8-5 at the side change, UCLA and USC took turns
netting. Krull, who finished with a triple double (13 kills, 12
digs and 10 blocks) drove home a ball to bring the score to 10-7.
UCLA never looked back as a kill by Tamika Johnson, a block by
Elisabeth Bachman, two kills by Wittenburg, and an error by USC
gave UCLA the win.