The stink of an upset loss left almost as suddenly as it
came.
One night after unranked Arizona smacked down the No. 8 UCLA
women’s volleyball team in four games, the Bruins came back
and swept Arizona State Saturday night at Pauley Pavilion.
Still, UCLA (13-3, 5-2 Pac-10) has to be worried about the way
it lollygagged against an Arizona team that came into the match 0-5
in the conference, waiting around for the win instead of seizing it
by the neck.
“We underestimated Arizona,” freshman outside hitter
Colby Lyman said. “We thought, “˜Oh, they’re last
in the Pac-10′ and didn’t take them
seriously.”
Seriously, that’s actually what happened against the
Wildcats (7-10, 1-6), who are having a trying season for the first
time in a while. So a 30-26, 24-30, 30-18, 30-22 spanking on Friday
was in order.
The Bruins lost in every aspect of the match, with the Wildcats
out-hitting (.255-.133), outblocking (14-11) and outdigging (58-55)
them.
Lyman and junior middle blocker Brynn Murphy, last week’s
Pac-10 Player of the Week, led the Bruins with 10 kills apiece, but
hit .194 and .029, respectively.
Arizona’s Kim Glass, meanwhile, registered a match-high 24
kills, hitting .333.
“It was just one of those days,” junior setter
Krystal McFarland said.
There was a bright side to the defeat, however.
“The loss helped us to regain our focus and energy,”
Lyman said.
UCLA channeled all of this to churn out a 31-29, 30-16, 30-24
win against unranked Arizona State (6-10, 1-6).
The Bruins continued to struggle in Game 1, with the Sun Devils
outhitting them .250-.186, but a block by senior middle blocker
Cira Wright won them the game.
“This was the other side of us,” coach Andy
Banachowski said. “We had to rebound, and we responded.
“No one played well (Friday). (Saturday), everyone played
well.”
Murphy regained her form, leading UCLA with 11 kills on a .476
hitting clip, and libero Chrissie Zartman had a match-high 14
digs.
It was UCLA which dominated the match this time, outhitting
Arizona State .300-.159, outblocking them 11-5, and outdigging them
45-43. The Bruins also served eight aces.
So what exactly was the key to making Saturday’s outcome
different than the one on Friday?
“We played like the Bruins,” McFarland
explained.