Throughout the regular season, the UCLA women’s volleyball
team had several opportunities to make a play that would turn its
season around, but usually came up empty.
But in the playoffs it’s been a different story.
The Bruins (20-10) came back from an early deficit against
Loyola Marymount (17-12) on Friday and pulled out a tight first
game against Long Beach State (24-7) on Saturday en route to
advancing to the third round of the NCAA Tournament.
“We haven’t always been able to respond in crucial
situations this season,” UCLA coach Andy Banachowksi said.
“It was really nice to see us battle back this
weekend.”
On Friday against the Lions, the Bruins were down 28-27 in the
first game but came back to win 30-28. They won the rest of the
match in four games 30-28, 30-23, 27-30, 30-22.
The following night, UCLA almost gave away the first game when
it let a 29-26 lead vanish into a 29-29 tie. But the Bruins won the
next two points and rolled the rest of the way, winning 31-29,
30-24, 30-27.
“I told the team I thought it was one of our best
performances of the season in terms of responding,”
Banachowski said. “I was thrilled with the way we
played.”
In both matches, the Bruins were led by outside hitter Brynn
Murphy, who finished with a team-high 19 and 15 kills,
respectively, in the weekend’s matches.
It was quite an effort for Murphy, who has been the
Bruins’ best and most consistent hitter this season,
averaging 3.21 kills per game.
“We’re playing great together and really jelling as
a team,” Murphy said. “There’s a determination on
this team that I hadn’t felt so far this season.”
Murphy was helped out by teammate Becky Green, who also finished
with 15 kills in Saturday’s match against the 49ers.
The effort was unexpected, especially considering that Green had
to come out during the third game of Friday’s match against
LMU with a migraine headache caused by a fever.
“I was going to play no matter how sick I felt,”
Green said. “I played with half those girls on Long Beach
State’s team and it was a really big match for me
personally.”
A lot of the opportunities for Green and Murphy came as a result
of the different hitting combinations the Bruins used. Setter
Krystal McFarland spread the sets to all the Bruins’ hitters,
trying to get the 49ers’ blockers off-balance.
The strategy worked, as the Bruins had a .278 and .268 hitting
percentage over the weekend, much higher than their regular season
average of .224.
“I thought our offensive production was much better than
we’ve had throughout the season,” Banachowski said.
The Bruins now move on to the quarterfinals in Seattle, where
they will face No. 2 Penn State, a team that only lost twice all
season.