The UCLA women’s volleyball team has been playing essentially the same volleyball for more than a month and a half.
“We’ve had the same season, we’re playing the same matches every time,“ said coach Michael Sealy. “If it works out our way, it’s going to work out our way. We’re going to control what we can control and leave the rest to the universe.”
The universe, however, has proven fickle to the Bruins. They’ve played at a high level, showing the potential to make even top teams think twice. However, in almost every match, there has been a point where things have started to go wrong – and as often as not, the team has fallen apart at these junctures.
That’s why the Bruins (14-12, 5-11 Pac-12) are only 5-8 since Oct. 4, when Sealy says their form began to pick up. Heading into a homestand kicked off by matches against Arizona State (17-11, 6-10) and Arizona (19-9, 9-7) this weekend, UCLA has essentially traded victories and losses, thus far unable to spin one positive performance into another. The last time the Bruins played these teams was a classic example of the way their season has gone.
The Bruins played very well against the Arizona Wildcats, and each set was very tight, but a few key errors and mental lapses caused the team to drop points at key times, dooming the Bruins to a three-set loss. Two nights later against Arizona State, UCLA played arguably just as well, but managed to maintain concentration and avoid the mistakes of the previous match, winning in three sets.
According to members of the team, the way the Bruins have traded wins and losses this season has almost become formulaic. Given this, multiple players expressed their desire to finally play consistently and win two matches in a row. As sophomore outside hitter Maddy Klineman said, in order to win regularly, the team needs to play decisively at key times.
“We definitely have to capitalize when we have a chance,” she said. “And we really have to try and minimize errors (in these games). We can’t give away points when the scores are this close.”
Klineman said that the team has more confidence in its ability to capitalize after it did just that in last week’s five-set victory over Washington State. In that match, the Bruins, tied 13-13 in the decisive fifth set, were able to close out the match with two straight kills. The win has given the Bruins belief that they could do things right, a belief that team members say they want to carry forward into this weekend’s matches.
“We realized that, even though we gave up points in sets three and four, we could still take the match,” said junior setter Megan Moenoa. “It’s good we got a tough win on the road, confidence-wise, (and) I feel good about this weekend coming up.”