The women’s volleyball team needed this.
In the midst of a seven-match winning streak and after an unproductive week in practice, the UCLA women’s volleyball team needed to be shaken out of its comfort zone in the form of a disappointing sweep at the hands of Washington on Saturday.
“We didn’t get better during the week, and it showed up in the matches this weekend,” coach Andy Banachowski said.
Freshman outside hitter Bojana Todorovic said the No. 4 Huskies’ (21-4, 11-4 Pac-10) sweep of the No. 6 Bruins (20-7, 10-4), 25-19, 25-18, 25-21, was a healthy reminder of the competition they will face in the NCAA tournament in just more than two weeks.
“I think we lost focus a little bit, and we got a little overconfident with our winning streak,” Todorovic said. “We were doing really well, and I think we’ve overlooked the basics that we need to go back to. So I think this is actually a really good reminder of what the NCAA finals will be like and how much better we need to get in order to compete with those teams.”
From the opening point, a long rally that went to the Huskies, the match had all the makings of an intense fight for the top spot in the conference.
But in just 100 minutes with 2,569 onlookers in Pauley Pavilion, the showdown turned into a Husky drubbing of the Bruins.
The match remained close through the first set until the Huskies went on a 6-0 run to turn a three-point deficit into a three-point lead. The Huskies never looked back, continuing to pound the Bruins.
The second set played out almost the same. After an 8-8 tie, Washington turned its attack on again with a 3-0 run that the Bruins were never able to recover from.
For sophomore middle blocker Amanda Gil, the problem was a lack of cohesion among the team.
“I feel like we just all broke up into our own little groups,” Gil said. “We didn’t stay together as a team like we have been doing in the past.”
Banachowski pulled junior Dicey McGraw, one of the team’s most consistent outside hitters on the season, in favor of freshman Mari Hole. Hole rallied off five kills but did not give the Bruin offense the spark it needed.
“I changed it up a little bit and had Mari come in and give her a chance to get some points and try and change the tempo of things, and she had some good kills but got blocked a few times too,” Banachowski said.
The Huskies continued their dominant attack in the third set. With the Bruins facing elimination, down 24-17, UCLA’s offense seemed to come together again, rallying off four straight, but eventually fell to Washington.
For Banachowski, the problem in Saturday’s match was simple.
“Washington was putting a lot of pressure on us,” he said.
Todorovic agreed and added that the Bruins’ incohesion also factored into the loss.
“Washington played a great match, lots of talent on that team,” she said. “But I think we didn’t show up, and we didn’t make the right plays at the right time. I mean, we had some great rallies, and we had a system, but we didn’t execute what we needed to in order to beat a team that is that good.”
The Bruins managed a mere .101 clip while Washington hit .245. Despite UCLA entering the weekend as the conference’s second-best blocking team and Washington having the second-worst block, Washington out-blocked UCLA 10.5 to six.
With the loss, the Bruins are now a half-game out of first place in the Pac-10 and no longer control their destiny to win the conference championship. But for Banachowski, it’s all about the NCAA Tournament.
“I think our long-term goal is more important for us, and that’s to prepare to do well in the postseason and progress toward the national championship,” he said.