The nation’s best volleyball teams competed in Honolulu over Labor Day weekend in the Hawaiian Airlines Wahine Volleyball Classic.
Among the teams were No. 1 Penn State, No. 6 UCLA, No. 12 Hawai’i and unranked Ohio.
In just its second match of the season, the UCLA women’s volleyball team (2-1) faced the defending national champion Penn State. The Bruins put up a strong battle, but in the end, they were not able to overcome the nation’s top team. UCLA fell to Penn State 25-22, 25-21, 25-13.
“They were a huge challenge for us,” coach Andy Banachowski said. “They are a very big and physical team. They overpowered us down the stretch and in the third set.”
In the first game, the Bruins started out strong and took the lead, 8-4. Penn State did not let UCLA get too far ahead, as the Nittany Lion’s junior outside hitter Megan Hodge had back-to-back kills to help tie the score at 9.
The Bruins were able to keep the score close, as Penn State never led by more than four points. However, UCLA had a tough time containing Hodge, as she added six kills, including the game point.
UCLA gained some momentum in the second game and started getting points right away.
The Bruins went up 4-0 thanks to a kill from sophomore outside hitter Dicey McGraw and three attack errors from Penn State.
The Bruins held the lead for a while, but a kill by Penn State’s senior outside hitter Nicole Fawcett tied the game at 13 and forced UCLA to call a timeout.
After the break, Penn State continued to score points, but the Bruins were never far behind.
With the scored tied at 19, freshman middle blocker Amanda Gil killed the ball.
The lead was not able to hold up for long, as a combination of kills from Fawcett and Hodge and UCLA errors ended the second game 25-21 in Penn State’s favor.
True to championship form, Penn State did not let down in the final game.
The Nittany Lions started the game with a 6-1 scoring run and did not look back.
UCLA fell behind by as many as 10 points and tallied only three team kills compared to Penn State’s 13. After finishing closely behind the Nittany Lions in the first two sets, the Bruins could not keep Game 3 close, and Penn State won, 25-13.
“We just got off to a poor start and weren’t able to compete and handle their serving at us,” Banachowski said.
On Friday night, the Bruins faced a challenging Ohio team in the first match of the season.
The Bobcats tested UCLA’s ability to play close sets, as the first and second games contained 19 tie scores and 10 lead changes. Despite the tight sets, the Bruins were able to sweep Ohio, 25-21, 25-22, 25-17.
The team had mentioned that it wanted to see a stronger offensive performance this season, and the Bruins got what they were asking for in the game against Ohio. McGraw finished with a game-high 13 kills, and senior outside hitter Ali Daley contributed another 10.
Following Friday’s win over Ohio and Saturday’s loss to Penn State, the Bruins faced home-state Hawai’i on Sunday night. In a match full of close sets, UCLA was able to outlast the Wahines 23-25, 25-23, 26-24, 30-28.
Before the game, Banachowski wanted to see if the Bruins would rebound from the loss to Penn State. The Bruins proved they could bounce back. After losing the first set, the team was able to rally back from a 20-17 deficit to win the second game.
The advantage of returning to the Aloha State year after year for the preseason is that the Bruins get to play the country’s best competition while mixing in a little bit of sightseeing.
“(Playing in Hawaii) gets us used to playing on the road and playing in front of a great crowd, which just adds to the excitement of college athletics,” Banachowski said.
The Bruins next game is Wednesday against UC Riverside in Riverside.