Weekend wins boost Bruins’ spirits

If the UCLA women’s volleyball team needed to be reminded of why they have such high expectations this season, they got the weekend they deserved.

The No. 9 Bruins (18-8, 8-7 Pac-10) picked up a pair of home sweeps and a boost in confidence as they beat Arizona State (12-15, 3-11) on Friday and then Arizona (14-12, 4-10) on Saturday.

With the number of remaining games on the schedule running low for the Bruins, home games against teams ranked seventh and ninth in the conference are must-wins, and there is no doubt that a loss to either the Sun Devils or the Wildcats at this point would have been devastating. However, the Bruins made quick work of any of those doubts.

“We stayed focused 98 percent of the time and we had energy the entire time,” freshman outside hitter Sara Sage said. “It wasn’t up and down like it has been in the past. It was consistent, and that’s awesome.”

After last week’s upset of then-No. 6 California, Arizona proved that it has the capacity to surprise athletically superior teams. But UCLA won the battle in every aspect of the game, logging set scores of 25-17, 25-18, 25-22.

In Saturday’s matchup, senior outside hitter Ali Daley led the Bruins with 11 kills. Senior setter Nellie Spicer also had a great all-around performance with 31 assists, five kills, and seven digs on the night.

“I think our offense is getting to be a little more potent now,” coach Andy Banachowski said. “I just think there is good stability in our passing game and our defense and I think we have the potential to be a very strong blocking team. … I’m happy with the ingredients that we have.”

Against the Sun Devils, UCLA started a bit shaky in the beginning of the first set, but once they found a rhythm, they would not slip back. The Bruins took the first set 25-20 and then posted wire-to-wire wins in the next two sets, 25-12 and 25-11. Freshman middle blockers Amanda Gil and Katie Camp hit 13 and 11 kills respectively, while the team posted a .331 hitting percentage.

After a breakdown in fundamentals that led to a loss at No. 5 Washington last week, the Bruins passing returned to form in the weekend’s matches at Pauley Pavilion.

“(Our passing) was much better, and that allowed us to get into our offense and it allowed us to put up some of the good numbers that we did,” Banachowski said. “So, it was a good confidence boost for our passing to get back here and be at home and pass in our gym and kind of get in a groove again.”

The Bruins next goal will be to stay in that groove, as they travel to No. 7 California and No. 2 Stanford next week, looking to pick up at least one good-quality win before the selection for the NCAA Tournament.

“Right now we’re getting excited for the tournament to start, and this upcoming weekend is going to be huge for us,” Sage said.

BRUIN SENIORS HIT MARKS: Two of UCLA’s seniors surpassed major milestones in career statistics this week. On Friday, Spicer recorded 39 assists to move into second place on the Bruins’ all-time list of career assist leaders. Then, on Saturday night, Daley recorded her 1,000th kill as a Bruin, becoming only the 24th player in UCLA history to do so. The feat is even more impressive, considering Daley played her freshman year at Long Beach State before transferring to Westwood, bringing her collegiate kill total to 1,376 after this weekend’s games.

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