Monday, November 4, 1996
VOLLEYBALL:
UCLA boasts of victory Friday, suffers loss on SaturdayBy Grace
Wen
Daily Bruin Senior Staff
The UCLA women’s volleyball team picked up a much needed win at
home on Friday night against Arizona State, but fell to Arizona on
Sunday afternoon.
The Bruins, who hadn’t won at home in a month, defeated Arizona
State 15-11, 15-6, 15-2 but stumbled behind Arizona for a final
score of 18-16, 15-6, 13-15, 15-9.
"We really, I don’t think, ever recovered from that first game,"
UCLA head coach Andy Banachowski said. "I thought we played hard
and kind of were emotionally spent from losing that first
game."
The first game was close and UCLA (14-9, 6-6 Pac-10) even served
for game point several times but couldn’t hold on for the win as
Arizona closed out the game 18-16.
In game two, the Wildcats (15-8, 6-7) trampled the Bruins.
Arizona’s Carolyn Penfield ended the game with her 12th kill on a
UCLA overpass.
Penfield finished the night with 18 kills and 17 digs, but she
didn’t do the most damage. Erin Aldrich notched a match high 21
kills and Barb Bell tagged UCLA with 20 kills.
"(We) didn’t rally at all in the second game, played well in the
third game, but made too many physical and mental errors today,"
Banachowski said.
* * *
On Friday night, the Bruins dominated the Sun Devils from the
start. Even during warmups, UCLA looked sharper than it had all
year.
"(I) feel good about getting a win here at home," Banachowski
said after that game. "It was getting tough to get the win but the
team played very well."
In game one, Arizona State scored the first point on a UCLA
hitting error, but that would be the last time the Sun Devils would
have a lead.
The Bruins scored the next 11 points by capitalizing on ASU
hitting errors while while getting some production of their own
from junior outside hitters Tanisha Larkin and Kara Milling. Each
recorded three kills during the run while Milling and defensive
specialist Alison Zamora had aces.
Arizona State, however, refused to hand the game over without a
fight. At 11-1, ASU sided out on a dump by setter Tracy Heflin. The
Sun Devils scored the next eight points before UCLA closed out the
match.
The Bruins blew the Sun Devils out of the water in games two and
three and held ASU to eight total points in the rest of the
match.
Three UCLA hitters notched over 12 kills. Senior middle blocker
Kim Krull posted 13 kills while Larkin and Milling had 12 and 15,
respectively.
Arizona State couldn’t counter and had three hitters hitting
negatively.
"We’re just extremely disappointed in our inability to convert
offensively," Arizona State head coach Patti Snyder-Park said. "We
just make so many hitting errors. It’s just been the death of us
this year. I don’t think that UCLA was a great team … they beat
us and they were so good. I think we killed ourselves."
SCOTT O/Daily Bruin
Jennifer Coopman recorded 14 digs during UCLA’s split with the
Arizona schools.