Tucked away in John Wooden Center, Collins Court showed that the damage from this past summer’s flood was a thing of the past.
The brand-new hardwood court hosting Sunday’s women’s volleyball matchup between the No. 16 UCLA Bruins (16-7, 7-5 Pac-12) and the Washington State Cougars (10-14, 1-11) left little reminder of the inches of water that at one point engulfed the entirety of the gymnasium floor.
Yet in the Bruins’ 3-2 win, there was a moment when the team still appeared to be drowning.
Deep into the fourth set, UCLA found itself down 19-21 and in very real danger of dropping its second of two matches this weekend, almost rendering the team’s much-anticipated homecoming an utter disappointment.
Instead, the Bruins forced a 6-0 run to level the match at two sets apiece and earned a decisive fifth set, where UCLA was left with much work to do.
Leading off the fifth set trading points, Washington State muscled its way to a 10-7 advantage and looked poised to earn its only second Pac-12 conference win of the season, but UCLA found a way to fend its opponent off.
Tying the fifth at 12-all, a service error from the Cougars set up the Bruins’ chance to win the match by a very slim margin, and with one last, swift kill by Karsta Lowe, UCLA sealed it.
“It was great. I was tired but happy that our team was able to finish it out,” the senior outside hitter said. “We were in the trenches a little bit, our passing was off, our hitting was off, but we were able to flip the switch and do something different and get the win.”
A surprisingly close match for UCLA, which had previously beat Washington State 3-1 earlier in the season, saw Lowe lead the team with 31 kills off of 65 attempts, while sophomore libero Taylor Formico registered a team-high 21 digs.
In what was only the team’s second true home game this season, Collins Court was nearly entirely full as the Bruin faithful garnered the fan support that has been hard to come by in UCLA’s home-away-from-home matchups so far this season.
“It’s our first home win, so it’s really nice to have so many people here,” Formico said. “Having the men’s team here and a loud crowd here to cheer us on – it’s really good for us.”
A resilient Cougar team answered the Bruin attack with a total of 19 team blocks while earning a better attack percentage in three of the five sets.
“They had everything. I respect that team more than probably any other out there just because they always fight no matter what. They’re really scrappy, and it’s a lesson that our girls learn about resiliency,” said coach Michael Sealy.
The much-needed five-set victory comes on the tail of a dismal 3-0 defeat to undefeated No. 2 Washington (23-0, 12-0) on Friday, in which UCLA failed to register more than 17 points in a single set and hit for a season-low percentage of .012.
“You always want to try to at least get a split in wins in the Pac-12 conference – it’s such a nasty conference that wins aren’t easy to come by,” Sealy said. “I told the girls after that (Washington) match to just forget about it, and today we executed. It’s a better win for us to scrap in five than to roll in three.”