STANFORD, Calif. – The hometown Stanford crowd erupted, certain that Inky Ajanaku had come up with the go-ahead kill in the fifth set. But senior libero Taylor Formico got the ball up, and a few contacts later Reily Buechler would hit the ball down to put UCLA women’s volleyball ahead 12-11.
“If you can make those defensive plays against players such as Inky or (Merete) Lutz – that’s where it all comes down to the wire – and since we were winning those points, that’s how you win those matches,” Buechler said.
The junior outside hitter got two more balls past Stanford’s imposing block to lead UCLA to a 15-11 fifth-set victory.
The No. 13 Bruins (21-5, 12-4 Pac-12) beat the No. 9 Cardinal (17-7, 11-5) to complete its first season sweep of Stanford since 2011.
UCLA took the first set with a 25-16 performance in which the Cardinal hit only -.036.
“We jumped on them real, real early and kind of stole that first set with not a lot of effort,” said coach Michael Sealy. “We knew they were going to bounce back and they obviously did.”
The Cardinal are the team with a reputation for a big block, but the Bruins were the ones who posted three blocks in set one, holding Stanford to hit only -.036 with 10 errors in the first set.
But the Cardinal’s presence at the net wouldn’t be missing for long, as the team recorded 14 compared to the Bruins’ 10 overall.
“The mistake we were making was that anything not perfect – if we were out of system or leaving the ball too far off the net – all of a sudden we’re setting everybody 8 feet off the net,” Sealy said. “You’re actually better off being closer to the net to kind of tool, attack fast, do something.”
Stanford took the second set 25-21, but UCLA recovered in the third set.
The Cardinal held their greatest lead of the set at 18-14, but the Bruins went on a 7-1 run, including three consecutive kills from freshman opposite Torrey Van Winden, to regain the lead. UCLA took the set 25-23.
Set four was characterized by an offensive onslaught from Stanford’s hitters, who tallied 19 kills for a hitting percentage of .567. Although the Bruins fell 16-25, the team was still able to hit .300.
“Even though we lost game four – kind of by a lot – it was nice to see that we played with confidence still,” Formico said. “We weren’t that passive – maybe for a few runs – but It was cool how we believed in ourselves and could win as a team.”
With tonight’s win, the Bruins remain in sole possession of the top spot of the Pac-12, clinging to a one-game lead over No. 11 Washington with four conference games to go, including a matchup against the Huskies on Nov. 23.
Sealy said that tonight the team was able to consistently dig deeper to come out on top against a strong opponent – the highest ranked team in the Pac-12.
“It’s awesome that we could reach that potential,” Buechler said. “It’s not always going to be that way, but going into these next couple of weeks, it’s looking good for us and it’s super exciting knowing that we can play in these big matches.”