Almost everything went as expected Sunday when the NCAA
women’s volleyball tournament brackets were released. The
Bruins, ranked eighth in the polls, also received the No. 8 seed, a
fitting position for a team that started hot and faltered late in
the season.
“We just have to go and do what we have to do,”
coach Andy Banachowski said. “Ultimately, looking far ahead,
we didn’t want to be No. 8 but it’s a pretty fitting
spot for us given the year that we’ve had.”
At one point, UCLA was 19-4, and poised to finish second behind
No. 1 USC in the Pac-10. But they finished the year 21-8, and
instead it was Stanford that finished behind the Trojans. The
Cardinal, for their part, received the fifth seed in the
tournament.
The Bruins will host the first two rounds of the tournament at
Pauley Pavilion, and they will play San Diego in the first round.
Should they win that match, UCLA will play the winner of Missouri
and UC Irvine. After that, the Bruins will hit the road to Lincoln,
Nebraska, where they will likely be pitted against the No. 9
Cornhuskers.
“I’m really happy we’re going to be hosting at
home and having a good home crowd with us on our side,”
junior Krystal McFarland said. “There are some hard teams
ahead of us that we have to take down.”
“It gives us a chance to have Pauley to ourselves and
it’s going to be nice to not have to travel right off the
bat,” Banachowski said.
The Bruins haven’t faced the Toreros this season, and
likely won’t have much trouble dispatching their first two
opponents. But after that, it gets much trickier. Nebraska is
traditionally a very tough opponent in the NCAA tournament, and
even eliminated the Bruins in a regional battle four years ago.
Although the Bruins aren’t overlooking their home matches,
the team is certainly gearing up to make a serious run at
Nebraska.
“We’ll get ready to play San Diego, ready for the
next night, and then head off to Lincoln,” Banachowski
said.