Pauley Pavilion did not get loud enough to get an encore out of Madeon at Bruin Bash on Monday, and the arena fell flat again Wednesday night, as No. 13 UCLA women’s volleyball was unable to pull off the upset against No. 3 USC.
The Bruins (9-2, 0-1 Pac-12) dropped their first conference game to the Trojans (13-0, 1-0) in straight sets, putting an end to their eight-match winning streak. USC, meanwhile, continued its undefeated 2015 campaign.
“I can’t say it’s a surprise,” said coach Michael Sealy. “We’ve had some great moments but we’ve had some stinkers in practice and in some matches as well.”
The Bruins fell behind early in each set, allowing the Trojans to jump out to a 9-2 lead in the first set and and 8-3 leads in the next two, as they cruised past the home team by scores of 25-22, 25-12, 25-19. As a team, UCLA posted a season-low .056 hitting percentage – never hitting higher than .125 throughout the three sets. That mark was over .200 points below the USC total.
“As we get into Pac-12 and play some great opponents, you can’t get back into matches if you give up a run of three, four, five points,” Sealy said. “(The) Pac-12 is too good.”
With Wednesday’s game being both the final UCLA sporting event before students have to worry about classes and the first showdown between the rival schools, the student section at Pauley Pavilion was packed. The total attendance was 4,441.
“Gosh, great crowd tonight,” said Trojan coach Mick Haley. “This is one of the most fun atmospheres we’ve had a chance to play in.”
His players might not have thought it was as fun. The third down-like crowd noise induced eight service errors from the Trojans, including two on consecutive Trojan serves. The Bruins only missed three serves.
“We were really excited about the crowd,” said senior libero Karly Drolson. “It’s the biggest fanbase we’ve had in a while. We just tried to treat it as a normal volleyball match.”
In three serve attempts, Drolson had no service errors and one ace.
Drolson and redshirt junior outside hitter Haley Lawless both laughed when asked if they were ready for classes to start. For a significant portion of the fall, UCLA student-athletes have the advantage of practicing without the distraction of class, as the quarter system pushes the start of classes later than semester system schools.
“We looked up our schedules and stuff,” Droslon said. “It’s hard because now we start school and we start practices on the same day as class. Our main thing for us is just really focusing on practice gym.”
UCLA began a grueling stretch of 20 straight Pac-12 games Wednesday. Its next match is a road game against Cal Sunday afternoon.
“Tonight was just a good little slap in the face to remind us that we have to keep working,” Sealy said.