Wednesday, November 27, 1996
VOLLEYBALL:
UCLA’s loss to Pepperdine puts NCAA berth in jeopardyBy Christie
DeBeau
Daily Bruin Contributor
Tuesday night was a disappointing one for the UCLA women’s
volleyball team. With the NCAA selection committee’s decision for
tournament at-large berths still to be determined, the match
against Pepperdine was an important one for the Bruins.
However, UCLA (17-3) was defeated in four games, 8-15, 15-11,
15-6, 15-13. The Waves (13-11) had 81 kills to the Bruins 60.
Nicole Sanderson led Pepperdine with 27 kills, leading the
Waves. UCLA’s top attacker, on the other hand, was Kara Milling
with 13 kills.
Losing this match makes the team’s chances for a tournament
berth look bleak.
"(Our hopes) are diminished tremendously," UCLA head coach Andy
Banachowski said. "We have to beat Long Beach to even have an
outside chance to get in."
Pepperdine head coach Nina Matthies, a former Bruin volleyball
player, was familiar with UCLA’s style of play.
"She knows what we do. They played a real smart game, they
served it short, and they really disrupted our offense,"
Banachowski said.
The tide of the game changed in favor of the Waves after the
Bruins’ victory in the first game. UCLA’s offense became weak and
they constantly struggled with Pepperdine’s short serves for the
final three games.
"We passed better in the first game and we were able to attack
better," Banachowski said. "As they started serving short, we
started passing the ball off the net. We did not generate any kind
of attack like we did in the first game."
Needless to say, Banachowski was not happy with his team’s
performance.
When asked which team members played well Tuesday night, coach
Banachowski replied,"That’s a real tough question."