UCLA women’s volleyball faces a rather interesting paradox in its matches against Washington and Washington State this weekend.
For a team that has so often struggled maintaining focus and at times failed to remember assignments, the Bruins must now quickly forget their recent success – a 3-0 sweep over the then-No. 22 Arizona State Sun Devils last Sunday – if they hope to take down either the Huskies or Cougars.
The Bruins said they feel confident heading into Friday’s match against the No. 3 Huskies (15-1, 7-1 Pac-12), buoyed by an improved mentality and increased communication on and off the court.
“We’ve done a lot of talking, a lot of the mental game has gotten better, I think,” said junior middle blocker Zoe Nightingale. “We’re honestly working harder and realizing we need to work harder to be who we want to be.”
While the team feels that it is finally playing up to its potential, it may need to play at that level and then some if it hopes to beat a Huskies squad that boasts one of the top offensive units in the nation. Through 16 games, Washington ranks second in the nation in aces per set and trails only Stanford in hitting percentage out of Pac-12 teams“We have to be pretty precise. They are powerful enough and skilled enough where you don’t get that many opportunities and when you do get an opportunity to score the point, you have to score the point,” said coach Mike Sealy. “We just need to play our game and if we can focus on one touch at a time we will be all right.”
UCLA receives a bit of a letup a day later when the it faces off against the Evergreen State’s other Pac-12 team. Washington State (16-6, 2-6) enters this weekend having dropped three straight, with all three losses coming at home.
However, the Bruins will have to contend with Cougars freshman outside hitter Kyra Holt who leads Washington State with 367.5 points on the year, nearly 120 more than the next closest teammate. While the Bruins will devote much of their attention this weekend to containing their opponents’ outside hitters, they will have to do so without one of their own. Freshman outside hitter Hayley Lawless, who suffered a knee injury in the Bruins’ victory over the Sun Devils, will not play this weekend, in an injury Sealy described as “devastating” to both the team and Lawless.
UCLA will likely turn to sophomore outside hitter Maddy Klineman, who drew praise from both Sealy and her teammates for her performance against Arizona State and Creighton earlier this year.
“Maddy will step in and perform well, we are going to do what we did last week,” said sophomore outside hitter Karsta Lowe”Maddy’s going to step in, I’m hitting out of the back row, so its another option in the back row which helps so we have enough options (on offense).”