There could not have been a better way for the seniors on the
UCLA women’s volleyball team to celebrate the end of their
regular-season careers at Pauley Pavilion. With two easy sweeps of
Oregon State (3-24, 0-18 Pac-10) and Oregon (17-11, 7-11) this
weekend, the Bruins played their last regular-season home matches
of the year. No. 4 UCLA (29-3, 15-3) defeated the Beavers on
Friday, 30-12, 30-15, 30-26, and the Ducks on Saturday, 30-25,
30-26, 30-20. The seniors have the possibility of playing two more
matches in Pauley Pavilion, as UCLA hosts the first and second
rounds of the NCAA Tournament this Friday and Saturday. But by
then, the soon-to-be-graduates will have more important things on
their minds than taking a trip down memory lane. Saturday’s
match against the Ducks was a night for honoring the Bruins’
four seniors: outside hitter Katie Carter, defensive specialist
Laura Kroneberger, libero Colby Lyman and middle blocker Nana
Meriwether. As a tribute to them in their final home game, coach
Andy Banachowski started all four ““ even Kroneberger, who has
seen limited playing time this season. Senior Night brought tears
to the girls’ eyes Saturday, even for some of the
lowerclassmen. “Before the game we did a ceremony, and I shed
a couple of tears then,” Kroneberger said. “Some of my
teammates were crying and I tried to turn away from them so they
wouldn’t make me cry.” “Becky (Mehring) kind of
got us all,” said Carter, who, like the other seniors,
received a teddy bear fully outfitted to resemble her. “When
we went to hug her she was crying. … It’s weird how
we’re not going to be as close as we are now ever again,
because we’re all going to go our separate ways.” For
some, hearing their names get called for what could be the final
time in introductions hit hard, but for others, volleyball is first
on the agenda and the depression of leaving UCLA will only come
with the final match of the season. “It’s very surreal
that I won’t be playing here, but we still have a lot of
volleyball to play,” Meriwether said. “So it
hasn’t hit me yet. I’m waiting for the (NCAA)
Tournament; I think it will hit me then.” These two sweeps
against Oregon State and Oregon were not only a confidence booster,
but also a momentum builder for the Bruins, going into the NCAA
Tournament this week. UCLA is currently on a four-match winning
streak, and is looking to extend that count to 10.
“It’s such a good feeling to know, going into the
tournament, that we swept both teams and played really well,”
Carter said. “We’re ready to start our new season.
These next six games we’re all going to win.” And UCLA
will look to run out the remaining matches of the season by riding
its improved serving and blocking, two skills which the Bruins have
perfected in the latter half of the regular season. In
Friday’s match, the Bruins aced the Beavers 10 times, led by
Kaitlin Sather’s six, and stuffed Oregon State with 12 team
blocks. On Saturday, UCLA roofed the Ducks 14 times, with 7.5 in
Game 1 alone. “I thought we played really well, and I thought
our serving was really a step up,” Banachowski said. “I
think that as a result of that, our blocking is even better. We had
two real good nights of blocking and two real good nights of
serving.” “Statistically, we’ve gotten so much
better this half of the season,” Carter said.
“We’re going up. There’s no plateauing,
there’s no declining; we’re just getting better. And
that’s going to do only good things for the
postseason.” And the postseason is creeping up soon enough,
with the Bruins’ first roadblocks coming in the form of the
University of Alabama at Birmingham on Friday, and, should UCLA be
victorious, the winner of the Utah-Michigan State matchup on
Saturday. “If we can continue to play this well and always be
able to match the intensity of our opponents, we’re going to
have a good postseason,” Banachowski said.
STANFORD PAC-10 CHAMPION: With a sweep of the
Washington schools this weekend, No. 3 Stanford claimed the Pac-10
title with a conference record of 16-2. No. 2 Washington and UCLA
are tied for second with identical 15-3 records, and No. 6 USC came
in fourth at 14-4.