The Bruins saw their first top-10 team last week, and came up with a victory against then-No. 8 Oregon. This week they will compete with another, even higher-ranked team.
“Playing against Oregon, we realized, ‘Oh, we have the potential to be a really great team,'” said freshman pin hitter Jenny Mosser. “It just really helps.”
No. 13 UCLA (8-3, 1-1 Pac-12) will face No. 6 Washington (12-1, 2-0) on Friday before taking on unranked Washington State (12-2, 1-1) on Sunday.
Last week the Bruins fell to rival No. 20 USC but then rebounded to upset Oregon, who has since fallen to No. 12 in the rankings.
“Our problem with USC was we didn’t start off strong in any of the sets and I think going in that was our goal against Oregon,” said senior setter Sarah Sponcil. “We can’t have all these (opposing) runs in the beginning because it’s hard to creep our way back.”
Although UCLA still started slow and lost the first set against Oregon, the Bruins were able to work their way back and win in four sets.
“It definitely helped us to like recognize how to win a game against a great team like that,” said freshman pin hitter Mac May. “We definitely focused on being the aggressors rather than just sitting back and letting things happen to us, and that really helped us to push through points that could definitely be difficult and get on runs.”
A high level of focus and aggressiveness could come in handy this weekend against a pair of teams who claimed two of UCLA’s seven losses in 2016.
Sponcil said the Bruins have been working on establishing the middle blockers early on.
“A lot of people that we’ve seen just go to the outsides and to the right sides in bad situations but I think it really helps to incorporate the middles,” Sponcil said. “It’s really important in a 5-1 to really get middles going even if it’s a bad pass on the back side.”
Washington’s middle blockers, freshman Lauren Sanders and senior Marion Hazelwood, are fourth and 12th in the country with 1.66 and 1.53 blocks per set, so a balanced offense will be essential to be able to get past the block.
Mosser said the key to winning this weekend lies in the Bruins’ serving and passing to get the opponent out of system.
“We know that the Washingtons are really good ball control teams,” Mosser said. “Our focus is tough serving and not getting down on ourselves when they make good plays.”