Just one month ago, a split against the Arizona schools may have
been acceptable for the UCLA women’s volleyball team.
But as the team has grown and improved since then, its newfound
success has brought higher expectations.
Despite Friday night’s 3-0 (30-28, 30-26, 20-27) sweep
over the Arizona State Sun Devils, UCLA’s 3-0 (30-26, 30-27,
30-19) Saturday night loss to No. 6 Arizona left a sour taste in
the players’ mouths.
“It was a very flat performance,” UCLA coach Andy
Banachowski said of the Bruins’ performance against the
Wildcats. “We didn’t serve or pass well. We never were
able to generate anything.”
The trip to Arizona didn’t start off nearly as glum for
UCLA (17-9, 9-7 Pac-10). In a sweep of the Sun Devils (7-19, 2-14),
the Bruins played a much more effective match than they played
against Arizona.
“(Against Arizona State) we were much more methodical and
much more effective in our offense,” Banachowski said.
In the victory, freshman outside hitter Kaitlin Sather led UCLA
with 18 kills and a .375 attack percentage. Katie Carter
contributed 11 kills to the winning cause and also hit above
.300.
The loss against the Wildcats, however, was a total reversal
from the previous night. The Bruins hit just .221 against the
Wildcats, with 18 attack errors and 11 service errors compared to
only two service aces.
After a valiant performance in a victory against a previously
undefeated Washington team last Saturday at Pauley Pavilion, the
Bruins simply could not reach a similar level of play against the
higher-ranked Wildcats.
“Tonight we got scattered and didn’t play with the
intensity we had last weekend against Washington,”
Banachowski said. “We also didn’t play with the poise
we needed.”
While he was disappointed with his team’s performance,
Banachowski also gave credit to a strong Wildcat team that came out
with energy that lasted throughout the match.
“It was a very emotional night for Arizona,”
Banachowski said. It was Senior Night, and they came out fired
up.”
Banachowski believes that had the Bruins played with more spirit
of their own, they could have made the match a lot more
competitive.
“We didn’t respond to the emotional intensity that
Arizona played with tonight,” Banachowski said. “They
played better than we did, but there were a lot of errors (by both
teams) in the match, so they didn’t have an outstanding
match. They were just better at hitting and serving than we
were.”
If there was a bright spot for the Bruins, it was the
performances of Nana Meriwether ““ who had 10 kills, seven
blocks, and a .533 attack percentage ““ and Rachell Johnson,
who hit .429 while notching seven kills. Other than those
individual performances, Banachowski felt there weren’t many
positives the Bruins could take away from the loss.
“Nana had a few nice blocks and attacks,” he said.
“Rachell had a good performance tonight, but we didn’t
get the ball to her enough, and that was due to some of our poor
passing.
“Overall our performance was pretty flat and unimpressive.
There wasn’t really anything we did well tonight.”
With reports from Michael Wozny, Bruin Sports reporter.