Monday, October 14, 1996
VOLLEYBALL:
Bruins bid for Pac-10 title suffers setback as UCLA loses six
matchesBy Mark Dittmer and Grace Wen
Daily Bruin Senior Staff
How was your weekend?
Better than the one the UCLA women’s volleyball team just went
through.
UCLA played two home matches  one Friday night against
Washington and one Saturday against Washington State  and was
swept. Bruin coach Andy Banachowski could not remember a time when
the Bruins had dropped two home matches in the same weekend.
Not just swept, as in two losses in two matches, but swept six
games out of six games.
"We’re pretty frustrated with the way things turned out,"
Banachowski said after Saturday’s contest. "We can play a lot
better."
The weekend had held promise for the Bruins. On Friday, Kara
Milling saw her first game action since she was injured in a
preseason tournament. On Saturday, it was freshman Melissa Wendt’s
turn to return from injury  she played in her first game ever
as a Bruin and led the team with 14 kills.
"It was awesome, I’ve been waiting to play. It’s tough watching
from the bench, not being able to play," Wendt said afterwards, ice
strapped to her knee.
There was little else for UCLA to cheer about.
"It’s great that we can bring players back," Banachowski said,
"But right now we’re not coming through in certain basic elements
of the game. We’re not serving well, we’re not hitting well Â
we’re not hitting and blocking well and those are things that our
team should be good at."
With the two home losses, the Bruins drop to 12-6 and into the
middle of the Pac-10 race. UCLA is 4-3 in conference play.
The Cougars didn’t gain ground on the Bruins this weekend
because their Saturday win followed a Friday loss to USC.
"(Friday night’s) team was not our team," Washington State coach
Cindy Frederic said after her team came back strong on Saturday.
"Tonight was a total turnaround. What we did poorly last night we
did incredibly tonight. I think our team was embarrassed against
USC. We came out with a mission tonight and we accomplished that
mission."
Meanwhile, with Washington’s Friday night win over UCLA, the
middle of the Pac 10 looks wide open, and the Bruins are as
vulnerable as anyone. With six losses at this point in the season,
the Bruins are only three losses away from their loss total for all
of last season. Is it time to worry about the Bruins’ playoff
chances?
"Not unless we keep playing like this," Banachowski said. "We
have three losses right now in the Pac 10.
"I’m confident that we can get better. I know we’ll get better.
And how fast we get better as the season goes along will determine
how good of a season we’ll have."
* * *
Washington’s 15-5, 15-8, 15-10 beating of UCLA was history in
the making for the Huskies.
"I would be lying if I didn’t say it was big," Washington head
coach Bill Neville said. "We’ve never beaten UCLA here and of
course we’ve only beaten them once in the past, but here it’s
tough. It’s like beating Notre Dame football at Notre Dame."
The victory was huge but it wasn’t as if the Huskies (15-2, 5-1
Pac 10) played the match of their lives. No, it was more like
Washington just took care of business and let UCLA make the
mistakes.
Three Bruin hitters recorded negative hitting percentages.
Middle blockers Kim Krull (6 kills, 9 errors) and Elisabeth Bachman
(3 kills, 4 errors), and opposite Linda Shudlick (1 kill, 3 errors)
all had more errors than kills.
The lack of offensive firepower hurt especially when coupled
with the fact that four Washington hitters recorded at least 11
kills or more on ineffective UCLA blocks.
"Our blocking was awful," Milling said. "We only got a few
blocks this whole game. And if we don’t have blocking, then our
defense is supposed to pick it up and we weren’t doing that either.
Those are the two things that hit us big time."
Outside hitter Angela Bransom of Washington contributed most of
the damage, posting six block assists and one solo block as
Washington outblocked UCLA 15-3. The 6-foot, 4-inch senior also
tagged UCLA with a match record of 23 kills and nine digs.
"We just got overpowered by a bigger, stronger team," UCLA head
coach Andy Banachowski said. "They are a very, very strong
attacking team and they just tore our block apart."
STEVE KIM/Daily Bruin
Kara Milling returned to action in Friday night’s game.