The UCLA women’s volleyball team hasn’t had to
rebound from a loss too many times this season.
But when the No. 5 Bruins (22-2, 9-2 Pac-10) host Arizona State
(11-11, 3-8) tonight and Arizona (10-13, 1-10) Saturday night, the
team will be looking to start a new winning streak.
UCLA’s loss to Washington last Friday was a tough one to
take, but the result wasn’t for lack of effort. The Bruins
battled hard and took the first game, but in the end, the fatigue
from a late road trip combined with an inspired Husky team that
hasn’t lost at home in more than two years was just too much
for the Bruins, who fell 3-1.
“It was tough for us to remain consistent,” senior
outside hitter Katie Carter said. “It was another really good
wake-up call.”
But the Bruins, who are now tied with the Huskies for second in
the Pac-10, are looking to recover against two Pac-10 teams having
a rough go of it.
After a promising start to the season, Arizona State has
struggled mightily in Pac-10 play. The Sun Devils’ three
Pac-10 wins all are against teams in the bottom half of the Pac-10
standings.
When the Sun Devils faced the Bruins in Tempe, Ariz. earlier
this year, the Bruins recorded an easy 3-0 (30-21, 30-26, 30-28)
sweep.
Known for their quick attacks, the Sun Devils have the ability
to surprise against higher-ranked teams. But the Bruins have been
preparing accordingly in practice this week.
“Arizona State runs a really fast offense, and we’ve
been working on a different kind of blocking in practice to stop
that,” Carter said. “We should be fine. We’ll
definitely want to kill them because we need to bounce back from
last weekend.”
One of the Sun Devils’ rare Pac-10 wins this season came
against Arizona, a team that has gone in a totally different
direction from one year ago.
Last season, the Wildcats were 25-6 and fell one win short of an
appearance in the Final Four. But after losing their core players
from last year, this year’s Wildcat team has tanked. Their
only Pac-10 win this season came against 3-16 Oregon State.
Arizona did battle well against UCLA when the Bruins faced the
Wildcats earlier this season.
The Wildcats took a game from the Bruins and were competitive in
the three games they lost.
Still, it was clearly a much different team from the one that
swept the Bruins last season.
The Bruins are looking to fine-tune their game this weekend and
pick up two wins before heading to the Bay Area to face two tougher
opponents next week.
“Developing consistency in our side-out offense is going
to be important for us this weekend,” coach Andy Banachowski
said. “Also, we’ll see if we can’t improve our
floor defense.
“(Arizona and Arizona state) have two different styles of
play that we’re going to see. That will challenge us and when
we’re challenged, we tend to do better.”