A top-sixteen seed and the chance to open the playoffs at home
may not have been expected, but the Bruins will take it.
The NCAA Tournament committee gave the Bruins (18-10) a No. 15
seed, meaning UCLA will host the first and second round matches,
starting this Friday against Loyola Marymount.
“I wasn’t really expecting it, especially after the
loss to Washington,” coach Andy Banachowski said. “But
we’ll take it either way.”
The announcement was especially surprising considering the
relatively low seedings given to the other Pac-10 schools by the
selection committee.
Washington, ranked No. 3 in the latest official poll, was seeded
seventh while USC, ranked No. 6 in the poll, was seeded eighth.
“Obviously the committee felt the strength of the Pac-10
this year wasn’t as strong as it has been in the past,”
Banachowski said. “But hopefully, we’ll prove them
wrong in the tournament.”
The Bruins’ chances of hosting were helped when three of
its west coast opponents, Stanford, St. Mary’s and UC Santa
Barbara, were not able to host due to various circumstances.
Stanford, in particular, was seeded No. 11 in the tournament,
but will have to travel across the country to Florida A&M for
the first two rounds due to renovation of its home court, Maples
Pavilion.
“With the other schools having prior commitments, it may
have helped us a little bit,” Banachowski said. “But I
think they ranked us where we should have been.”
In UCLA’s bracket, there are two other Southern California
teams in Long Beach State and Loyola Marymount, with the Bruins
first facing LMU (17-11) on Friday.
The Bruins are very familiar with the players on both teams, as
Bruin libero Laura Kroneberger’s sister is a member of Long
Beach State’s team.
“It will be fun to play against both teams,”
sophomore outside hitter Becky Green said.
“We’ve played against these girls before and are
familiar with their play.”
If the Bruins win Friday’s match against the Lions, they
will play the winner of the Utah and Long Beach State match on
Saturday.
Thought both of those teams have played well this year, neither
team has fared exceptionally well, allowing the Bruins’ draw
to shape up favorably.
The draw appears fortuitous for the Bruins, especially
considering their mediocre track record this season.
Saturday night, the Bruins lost to Washington, the Pac-10
champion who had also knocked off the Bruins earlier in the
year.
After winning the first game 32-30, the Bruins fell apart in the
last three games, losing 23-30, 23-30, 24-30.
“We caught them off guard in the first game,”
Banachowski said. “But after that, we just couldn’t
keep up with their energy and they outplayed us.”
They’ll get a chance to redeem themselves starting this
Friday. But if they get outplayed again, their season may well be
over.