For nearly a month, UCLA women’s volleyball games have followed the same old script: repeating scenes of close, but not quite; almost there, but not; good, but not good enough. For much of this weekend’s trip to Oregon and Oregon State, the team appeared ready to follow that line.
For the first time since September, the Bruins refused to blink.
“We just pulled together as a team; we wanted to get our first win really bad, as a team, as a collective we were all saying, ‘Let’s just get our first W,'” said senior outside hitter Kelly Reeves, who posted 10 digs, eight kills and a career-high six blocks on Saturday to go along with a double-double from Friday’s match with Oregon (10-5, 3-2 Pac-12). “We all believe in each other, we all trust each other. When we were down 8-4 … we started making plays and having fun. We weren’t worrying about the score; we were just like we have to get a sideout and get points.”
UCLA (10-6, 1-5) would do just that, storming back in the final set to tie the score at eight-all with kills by junior outside hitter Karsta Lowe and freshman middle blocker Claire Felix, and a pair of Oregon State (9-8, 0-6) errors. By the time junior middle blocker Zoe Nightingale recorded the last of the team’s season-high 17 blocks to seal UCLA’s first conference victory of the year, the Bruins had outscored the home team 11-4.
After a five-game stretch of repeatedly failing to finish games, the Bruins at long last exorcised the demons that had plagued them for the better part of three weeks.
“It felt like we won the national championship,” said junior middle blocker Zoe Nightingale with a laugh. “Having that first Pac-12 win under our belt, I feel like it’s going to start the ball rolling, now that we know what it’s like to win.”
Relief and hope – they were sentiments echoed by teammates and coach alike. However, if UCLA is to make good on this reborn optimism, said coach Mike Sealy, it needs to commit to fighting for every point and do so consistently.
“They are starting to understand that it’s just volleyball. No matter how chaotic or stressful it seems, it’s the same game they played their whole lives,” Sealy said. “I think once our realization becomes our habit, it’ll take a whole lot of pressure off. There’s that unspoken thought system that it’s all about the wins and losses and you got to push harder to win to do more and more, but I think once everyone realizes that it’s just about doing what we always do consistently, the wins will take care of themselves.”