Up 25-24 in the third set against Oregon on Sunday, the Bruins were serving for match point. The UCLA women’s volleyball team looked poised to finish its weekend 2-0 and notch its first Pac-12 winning streak– but things didn’t quite work out that way.
The Bruins dropped match point, then lost the next two to give the Ducks both the set and new life. Oregon surged out to win the fourth set, forcing the match to a tie-breaking fifth set.
In that frame, Oregon (14-10, 7-7 Pac-12) finished the comeback, building a sizable lead, then overcoming a late UCLA push to win the set, ending the match 3-2. The loss came two days after the Bruins dispatched the Beavers (9-16, 0-14) in a quick three sets.
UCLA (13-11, 4-10) coach Michael Sealy said the defeat was tough to swallow, especially considering how close they came to closing the victory out.
“It’s a bummer,” Sealy said. “We did some really good things in the first two sets – when Oregon wasn’t playing at their peak, they allowed us to kind of cruise. They’ve always been a team that can come down from 0-2 and play with a lot of energy. We had some opportunities to close in three, couldn’t, and then they got really excited to play.”
The Bruins’ performance late in the match was particularly surprising, considering how well they played in the first three sets. Though they came out sluggishly in the first, going down 0-5, the team dominated the rest of the set, going 25-8 from that point. In the second, the team maintained a slim lead over Oregon throughout, eventually winning 25-20. The third set was the tightest of the lot, with each team trading points until match point.
After that crucial point, the Bruins seemed to lose the verve they played with in the three previous sets. In the fourth and fifth sets, they made small errors, dropped easy points, and seemed like they were playing a pace behind the Ducks.
“I think as a team, we ride momentum a lot,” said junior middle blocker Zoë Nightingale. “So when we got a couple blocks early on, we were in a good mentality, kept that going forward. Once we started to fail, once they started scoring points, we kind of fell apart.”
The loss ruined what could have been a very positive weekend for the Bruins. In its match on Friday, UCLA won comfortably, seeming to have no trouble in dispatching the Beavers. And until the Ducks came back, it looked as if that would be the case against them as well.
Team members expressed frustration at once again not having their performance on the court validated by the match’s final score. In the past four matches, the Bruins said they felt as if they have played well enough to win every time – and have only one win to show for it.
Nonetheless, as the Bruins begin a six-day road trip on Wednesday against Washingtonand Washington State, senior middle blocker Mariana Aquino sees some positives to take from the loss.
“Every game we lose or every game we win, we can take away something positive,” she said. “You can learn something, even from the lowest of lows.”