With the first half of the Pac-10 season over, the No. 13 UCLA
women’s volleyball team was looking to start the second half
by sending a strong message to the rest of the conference. They
started, instead, with a whimper.
The Bruins (12-9, 5-6 Pac-10) layed a proverbial egg against
Washington on Saturday, losing 3-0. A day earlier, the team dropped
a tough 3-2 contest to No. 20 Washington State.
The Bruins managed a five-game victory against the Cougars
(15-5, 5-5) a month ago in Pauley Pavilion, but were unable to pull
out a win this time around.
“I think their home crowd certainly helped them and gave
them a lot of momentum,” head coach Andy Banachowski said.
“It inspired them.”
If any single player was inspired, it was Cougar outside hitter
Chelsie Schafer, who had 24 kills to only five errors.
Down two games to none, the Bruins relied heavily on their
defense to get back into the match. Freshman libero Chrissie
Zartman recorded 28 digs. The blocking of Angela Eckmier and Brynn
Murphy caught fire as UCLA stormed back to tie the match at two
games.
“Our blocking was very streaky. At times we couldn’t
touch the ball, at times it brought us back into the match,”
Banachowski said.
But in the deciding fifth game the Cougars ran off six straight
points and won the game 15-7. Once again the Bruins stumbled with
poor execution late in games.
“I think we could have executed a little better on both
offense and defense,” Zartman said. “Both teams played
well, but, all-around we could have played better.”
A day after the deflating loss, UCLA traveled to Seattle to face
Washington. In their previous meeting the Bruins swept the Huskies
(13-7, 5-6) in three games at Pauley, but this time around
Washington was more than happy to return the favor.
In what should be considered a major flop by the Bruins, UCLA
hit .068 and .064 in the second and third games, while the
Huskies’ Sanja Tomasevic had fifteen kills and no errors.
“I felt we had a very anemic hitting performance and we
really weren’t in the match,” Banachowski said.
The team had stressed hitting in practice, but based on its
performance at Washington it is clear that the Bruins still have a
lot of work to do. The lone bright spot for UCLA was Zartman, who
recorded 22 digs in only three games.
“Chrissie was outstanding. Other than that, I don’t
think there was a whole lot of consistency on the rest of the
team,” Banachowski said. “No one else really sustained
their play very well.”
The schedule doesn’t get any easier for UCLA, as the
Bruins must face No. 6 Stanford ““ and a possible three-game
losing streak ““ Friday.