The setting was perfect for the UCLA women’s volleyball
team to end its nine-game losing streak to USC.
The Bruins were playing their first home match of the season in
front of 2,777 fans, the largest home crowd in at least nine
years.
One of the team’s strongest players, freshman outside
hitter Kaitlin Sather, was back after missing the previous match
with a knee injury.
And most importantly, USC, the winner of two of the last three
NCAA titles, was off to its worst start in years with a 4-6
record.
The apparent advantages didn’t matter, however, as the
Bruins lost for the 10th consecutive time to the Trojans on Friday
night at Pauley Pavilion. With the 25-30, 30-15, 30-20, 30-26 loss,
UCLA (7-5, 0-3 Pac-10) finds itself in a four-game losing streak
after starting 7-1.
“It was a huge game against USC and I hate to lose,
especially to them,” Sather said. “We could have taken
them. We should have won, but there’s no should have or would
have. We didn’t win. So now we’re going back to the
practice gym. We have a lot of work to do.”
In Game 1, the young Bruin team played like seasoned veterans,
jumping out to a 5-0 lead en route to a 30-25 victory. UCLA smashed
18 kills and hit .205 while holding USC to a dismal .051 hitting
percentage.
But after an 8-0 run put the Trojans up 14-5 in Game 2, the
Bruins never recovered, losing the game 15-30. With 10 kills and
eight errors in the game, the Bruins were limited to a .043 hitting
percentage while USC hit .366.
“In the first game we played really well together, and we
had heart and wanted to win,” freshman outside hitter Kelsey
Hall said. “In the second game, we just let up and had a
breakdown. It seemed like once we got down everyone else got down
and we couldn’t get back up.”
Led by two-time All-American middle blocker Bibiana Candelas,
who had eight kills in Game 3, the Trojans continued their
dominance over the Bruins, who were unable to find any offensive
rhythm in a 16-6 USC run to end the third game.
“We didn’t communicate as well as we should have in
the second and third games, and we just couldn’t grab hold of
any momentum,” Sather said.
The Bruins’ intensity picked up in Game 4, rebounding from
a 8-18 deficit to close within one point at 25-26. UCLA got no
closer, though, as Candelas sealed the match with two strong
kills.
“We really played an inspired first game out there, and
our intensity level was very good,” UCLA coach Andy
Banachowski said. “But USC responded and we didn’t
match their response, and I think that’s where our lack of
experience showed.”
A major factor in the defeat was the play of Candelas, who
recorded a career-high 26 kills for the Trojans.
She stifled numerous Bruin attempts to make a comeback with a
strong blocking presence and offensive power, registering four
kills and an ace in one 5-1 Trojan run.
“(Candelas) is bigger than everyone else and she’s
got longer arms than everyone else and she’s played on the
Mexican national team, so she’s got a lot more
experience,” Banachowski said.
“It’s not a great match-up when you have young kids
playing against someone with that much experience. We certainly
worked on things in practice to try to stop her, but great players
aren’t easily stopped.”
Despite the loss, the freshmen provided major contributions to
the team, as six of the seven players who played all four games
were freshmen.
Sather returned from her injury to lead the Bruins with 18
kills, a career-high 18 digs, and two aces. Hall also stepped up
for UCLA with 12 kills and 13 digs.
Everyone on the team realizes that there are some areas that
need quite a bit of improvement if the Bruins are to be successful
this season, as UCLA was out-blocked nine to 16 against the Trojans
and had 33 hitting errors compared to 17 by USC.
“We’ve got to get over beating ourselves,”
Banachowski said. “They out-blocked us pretty heavily tonight
but we still made more hitting errors than they had blocks, and
those are some things that we can control.”
Although the experience of losing is painful, the Bruins want to
remember it so that they can use it for their advantage the next
time they face USC.
“They are an all-around good team, and it was exciting to
play against them for the first time,” Hall said. “I
know the feeling of losing to them now, and I know that next time
when we go there to play that we’re going to want to kill
them.”