As the UCLA women’s volleyball team prepares to travel to
Pepperdine tonight, they are facing some new obstacles. Besides the
fact that the Bruins are playing on limited rest after playing two
matches in Oregon this past Thursday and Friday, Colby
Lyman’s elbow injury will sideline her for tonight’s
match at Pepperdine. “We are progressing well and the
freshmen are getting a lot better, but this injury is going to set
the progression of the team back a little bit,” UCLA coach
Andy Banachowski said. “It will be a much tougher chore to
beat Pepperdine without Colby in the lineup.” It will
certainly be a tough chore for the Bruins. Earlier this season,
when Lyman was out with a tibial bone contusion, the Bruins lost
four straight matches. And that streak is something the Bruins
certainly don’t want to repeat. “We’ve got to get
consistent, but it’s tough when you lose a starter of
Colby’s stature and have four freshmen on the court,”
Banachowski said. In Friday’s matchup with the Ducks, the
injury to junior captain Lyman certainly showed. With their leader
out of the match, the No. 21 Bruins (13-8, 6-6 Pac-10) were barely
able to pull out a victory over conference doormat Oregon (11-13,
1-12). Instead of getting the easy win they expected on Friday,
UCLA nearly lost to a team which it has defeated 37 consecutive
times. The Bruins had to come back from a 1-2 game deficit to
defeat the Ducks 33-35, 30-15, 24-30, 30-16, 15-12. “We had a
very erratic performance,” Banachowski said. “It was
very hard without Colby in the lineup playing the role that she
does for us as the captain. She really plays an important part in
setting the emotion of the team during the match. Without her we
were a little scattered and there was some confusion on the
court.” In the game, the teams traded points for most of Game
1, and the Bruins gave up three straight points to end the game
after having a 33-32 lead. UCLA stayed in the match with a
dominating win in Game 2, but the Bruins failed to gain any
momentum and were thoroughly outplayed in the third game. It was so
bad that the third game win marked the first time this season the
Ducks have won multiple games against a ranked opponent. “We
were very inconsistent,” Banachowski said. “From that
standpoint, it was a little disappointing.” It the end, it
seemed like the Bruins would lose their first match of the season
to an unranked team in the middle of Game 5, as the Ducks held a
10-7 advantage. But then UCLA was jolted to life, going on an 8-2
run to seal the match.
MERIWETHER GETS HONOR: UCLA middle blocker Nana
Meriwether, who had eight solo blocks and eight block assists
against Oregon, was named Pac-10 athlete of the week for
women’s volleyball on Monday. Meriwether set new UCLA records
for solo blocks and total blocks in a five-game match with her
performance. The Bruins also racked up a season-high 25 total team
blocks. “We had a tremendous blocking performance,”
Banachowski said. “Coach Sealy made some blocking switches
and we put a bigger block on their big guns. We also served
reasonably well, and our good serving helped to set up our
blocking.”
FRESHMEN RESPOND: Freshman setter Nellie Spicer
had the best all-around game for the Bruins on Friday with 58
assists, 22 digs, five kills, six blocks and two aces. Freshman
Kelsey Hall also filled in well for Lyman with eight kills and
eleven digs.