The travel bus will meander down the Grapevine, through the
garlic fields of Gilroy, up the coastal freeway to Palo Alto and
across the bay to Berkeley. Facing the toughest road trip of the
season, the No. 11 UCLA women’s volleyball team will face No.
7 Stanford (13-3, 6-1) on Thursday and then undefeated No. 5
California (16-0, 7-0) on Friday.
Stanford, the 2002 NCAA runner-up, has given the Bruins fits in
recent years. UCLA lost both meetings last season against the
Cardinal, and hasn’t won a match against them since 2000.
Cal, on the other hand, is the surprise team of the conference.
All-American candidate junior Mia Jerkov has led the Golden Bears
to their best start in school history. The strong-armed junior
leads her team with 6.09 kills per game and is one of the most
fearsome players in the conference.
“Cal has been a work in progress, getting better every
year,” coach Andy Banachowski said. “They’ve got
a legitimate star in Mia Jerkov. She’s playing much more
consistently for them and doesn’t have to carry as much of
the load as she has had to carry in the past.”
Of course, history is against Cal. UCLA is 42-0 all-time against
the Golden Bears, a point of pride for the Bruins. However, this
may be the year when Cal finally upends UCLA; it has, in fact,
already upset Stanford for the first time ever.
“They’ve had a few opportunities in the past where
they’ve had us on the ropes, but the team is aware of that,
and they’re working hard to keep our record intact,”
Banachowski said.
The Bruins are coming off a weekend in which they played poorly
in a loss to Arizona, and then brilliantly in a victory against
Arizona State. Consistent play will be critical if the Bruins are
going to take even one of the matches in Northern California.
“We cannot make the same amount of errors that we made
against Arizona, or we’ll end up with the same result,”
Banachowski said.
The keys to each match are simple: Against Stanford, UCLA cannot
afford to keep their offense predictable; against Cal, they must
find a way to neutralize Jerkov with a solid defense.
“Stanford has one of the best blocking tandems in the
conference, so we worked on being a little more deceptive on our
attack,” junior Heather Cullen said.
With USC also undefeated, second and even third place in the
Pac-10 will likely go to a top-10 team in the nation. Although
history is on the Bruins’ side, the team knows their biggest
challenge lies just ahead of their long road.