Almost as soon as its winning streak was broken, the
women’s volleyball team had already begun picking up the
pieces.
The loss to then-No. 6 Stanford on Friday was the first in
UCLA’s 21 matches this season, but the team is looking at it
in only a positive light. After all, there is nothing better to
learn from than one’s own mistakes.
“I think it’s hard losing, but it also makes us
human,” middle blocker Nana Meriwether said. “Sometimes
you can’t be perfect.
“But now we’re so much more intense and we’re
so much more ready to work in the gym.”
“It wasn’t really that important to us to keep our
record unblemished at all,” coach Andy Banachowski said.
While not giving significant weight to being unbeatable,
Banachowski did, however, want to keep the Pac-10 race as close as
possible, especially with five of the 10 teams in the conference
ranked in the top 10 in the nation.
“I don’t think anyone expected to come out of the
conference undefeated,” Banachowski said. “That’s
why this loss was so disappointing. It gives Stanford an advantage
in the standings.”
And if there was anything good about this loss, it was that it
came early enough in the season for the Bruins to recover from and
improve upon it. Whereas, if the Bruins had gone undefeated deep
into the season, the pressure to stay invincible might have been
excruciating; they would have had an even larger target on their
backs; and they would have had little time to recuperate.
“It’s really not safe to go into the tournament
undefeated because you’re bound to lose a game,”
outside hitter Katie Carter said. “I’m glad that we got
this out of the way now because we have a lot more time to improve
and to work harder.”
“It’s a relief. I mean nobody wants to lose, but we
know that that’s gone and out of here, so good. It was a good
wake-up call.”
The Bruins will use this loss as one of their biggest
motivational tests as they head into the second half of the season.
And it will soon be seen how they will bounce back against
cross-town rival No. 5 USC this Friday.
“We lost a game, but so did ‘SC,” Carter said.
“They lost last night too. We lost in five; they lost in
three. So things like that, we just latch onto to make ourselves
feel better.”
“This is really a push because none of us wants to feel
like this at the end of the season,” Meriwether said.
“We know the feeling, and we don’t want it, so
it’ll push us to work harder.”
RANKING FALLS: After its first loss of the
season to then-ranked No. 6 Stanford, UCLA dropped one spot to No.
4 in the AVCA Coaches Poll on Monday. Meanwhile, the Cardinal
leapfrogged both UCLA and USC after sweeping the L.A. schools this
weekend and is now at No. 3.
The matchup between the Bruins and the Trojans will still be a
battle between two of the top-five teams in the nation as USC fell
a spot to No. 5.