MALIBU — Saturday’s loss to San Diego highlighted the Bruins’ early season flaws.
“We realized that we were not getting quality digs in order to run our middles (against San Diego),” said senior libero Taylor Formico. “We were just getting the ball up, and they were committing to the outside and blocking us. Tonight we were really focusing on getting that quality dig and getting our middles in a position to get us some points.”
No. 11 UCLA (8-1) women’s volleyball was able to rebound from the loss and take down Pepperdine (6-4) in four sets Tuesday night.
The Bruins appeared dominant in sets two and four, but the first set was far from perfect and riddled with unforced errors.
“I think we kind of realized that in the first set we were back on our heels, and we weren’t putting any pressure on them,” Formico said. “So in the second set we wanted to change and get in attack mode and challenge them.”
The second set was a different story. UCLA jumped out to an early lead and cruised to a 25-14 victory. The team hit a combined .243 compared to just .189 in the first set.
“We were coming off a loss, and we just wanted to feel that fun again,” said freshman opposite Torrey Van Winden. “After the second set we came into the locker room and discussed the first set and we just went back out there with a mentally that we were going to have fun.”
The win was punctuated by a turnaround performance from senior middle blocker Claire Felix, who notched one solo block, five block assists, 11 kills and just one error for a hitting percentage of .588.
“She’s one of those players that kind of sees that she wants to be better and watches video, so she was pretty motivated,” said coach Michael Sealy. “She had that offseason surgery and she’s been good, but tonight was the first time that she really looked like the old Claire.”
UCLA was able to take advantage of Felix’s main strength, the slide, thanks to accurate passing by Formico and the rest of the back line, an improvement from the team’s previous game. Senior middle blocker Jennie Frager also contributed 11 kills, one solo block and three block assists from the middle.
On the pins, the Bruin outside hitters faced a big block from Pepperdine 6-foot-7-inch opposite Ashley Harris all night. Senior Jordan Anderson and junior Reily Buechler struggled to find their groove for the first few sets of the match.
“Jordan struggled, struggled, struggled – but all of a sudden you get into the fourth set and her last four or five swings she was back in sync,” Sealy said. “She fought through the rough patch and was courageous enough to keep going.”
The hitters and redshirt junior setter Ryann Chandler adjusted to the big block by running faster sets to the outside. By the end of the match, both hitters had found a way to hit around the block and score. Anderson finished with 14 kills and Buechler had 15.
UCLA plays Long Beach State on Wednesday in its final game before conference play.