On the schedule, it will look like just another 0-2 weekend, another lost road trip, another missed opportunity. But for the members of the UCLA women’s volleyball team, their trip to the Bay Area this weekend was anything but a pair of wasted matches.
UCLA’s losses to Stanford and Cal dropped UCLA to 12-10 on the season, but one or two points the other way and the team could have been sitting on its best road trip of the season.
“It all depends on how you look at it,” said coach Michael Sealy. “If you look at this like an 0-2 weekend, a giant failure, you could. Or you could compare this to the last time we played these two teams, see the huge upswing, see that we’re at a point where we can actually compete with these teams … then you realize it’s just a matter of getting over that hill, make sure we close these things out.”
Team members echoed this sentiment, citing their improved resiliency as a key positive takeaway from this weekend. Earlier in the season, the Bruins would often fold after going down early in matches, rarely managing to rally back. This weekend, the team flipped the script.
After going down 2-0 against No. 3 Stanford, which earlier in the season dealt UCLA a smarting blow, UCLA surged back to take the third set and climb back into the game. Against Cal, UCLA gave away two set points, allowing Cal to turn what looked like a sure loss into a 2-1 advantage. But UCLA didn’t flinch, taking the fourth set and hanging tight throughout the fifth. Though the Bruins lost both matches, they felt they played well enough to win.
“This weekend we showed a lot of heart, even when things weren’t going as well,” said senior outside hitter Kelly Reeves. “I think these are really good teams, but they are beatable, and I just think we’re going to use that as our motivation to get out there and keep fighting.”
That being said, the Bruins certainly feel that they have a lot of room to improve, particularly in the way they close out matches. Time and time again this season, UCLA has been unable to win the final few points of sets and close them out. In the first set against Stanford and the second and third against Cal, the Bruins stayed true to form, fumbling away what could have been three huge set victories.
So it isn’t surprising that the team has been working on improving its finishing in recent practices. In practice last week, the team played simulated matches, starting from 18-18 and going to 25, to try to create a situation similar to ones where the Bruins have faltered all year. And while Sealy acknowledged the difficulty in creating stress similar to a Sunday night five-setter during a Tuesday morning practice, both he and the team felt that they had to find some way to prepare for the intense pressure late in matches.
“In practice, we’re trying to simulate tight, close games, and work on putting them away,” said sophomore defensive specialist and libero Karly Drolson. “Even if we don’t get a perfect pass or a perfect set, just try and do whatever we can to just terminate that ball, and just get a kill towards the end of the match.”
The Bruins have made great strides since early in the year – if they can improve their finishing, they feel their record will begin to reflect that.