CLEMSON, S.C. “”mdash; The women’s volleyball team may not have been at home for the opening two rounds of the NCAA Tournament, but the No. 12 Bruins sure made themselves comfortable this weekend.
The eighth-seeded UCLA team was not awarded with a home-court advantage as it has been in previous years, but it made the best of its situation on the road. The Bruins handily defeated Alabama A&M on Friday, then put away host school Clemson to advance to the Sweet 16 for the fifth straight season.
“I was really pleased with the way we played (Friday),” coach Andy Banachowski said. “I was a little concerned with how we would perform coming off the travel, but we did a great job executing what we wanted to do.”
The Bruins traveled 2,300 miles Wednesday to get to Clemson, but in their match against Alabama A&M, they didn’t seemed jet-lagged in the least.
UCLA set a school record for fewest points allowed in a game when they held the Bulldogs to nine points in the first set. The Bruins then proceeded to close out the night in similar fashion, defeating the Southwestern Athletic Conference team 30-14, 30-13.
“It was really important (to start off well),” said senior middle blocker Rachell Johnson, who hit .571 on the night. “If we were to let things slip away, there is no telling what would have happened. We haven’t done well recently when we are pushed, so it was good to take over from the beginning, play our game and build momentum as the game went on.”
In such a blowout, Banachowski was able to rest his starters and give some of his other players some court time.
Fourteen players saw action Friday night, including senior middle blocker Meghan Schoen, who notched two kills in two attempts, and junior setter Nikki Jagd, who put up 13 assists in relief of starter Nellie Spicer, who had 25.
“It’s so fun when everyone gets to play,” said junior outside hitter Kaitlin Sather, who led the team with 11 kills, and hit .643. “We all train the same amount of hours. It’s not as if everybody gets time off whether you’re playing or not. Everyone played hard.”
“It was fortunate that we were able to play everybody and rest our starters, especially in the third game, to give everybody a taste of NCAA Tournament competition,” Banachowski said. “It will allow our starters to be a little fresher.”
And by Saturday, the starting lineup was ready and able. The Bruins jumped out to an early lead, which eventually widened to a 12-point advantage.
By game’s end, UCLA was able to keep that stranglehold on Clemson, winning 30-19. The second game went similarly, as the Bruins won 30-21. The third set, however, proved more problematic.
UCLA’s offense took a stumble, and it hit for just .128, and the Tigers picked up half of their 14 total blocks in that game. UCLA lost Game 3, 19-30, but rallied back to win Game 4, 30-22.
“We didn’t anticipate Clemson coming out during the third game with that much fight left in them,” Banachowski said. “They were ready to play and they capitalized on some of our mistakes.”
The Bruins now move to the regionals, hosted at Stanford, and will meet a familiar foe in Pac-10 counterpart Oregon on Friday.
Should UCLA win, another Pac-10 matchup may ensue Saturday if Stanford wins its match against Cal Poly.