Down 13-10 in the fifth set after hitting a ball four feet
beyond the endline, Brittany Ringel could have wilted like a
week-old rose.
Instead the sophomore outside hitter gathered herself and made
two crucial kills during the Bruins’ decisive five-point run,
leading the UCLA women’s volleyball team past Arizona State
on Thursday night at Pauley Pavilion 26-30, 30-22, 30-22, 23-30,
15-13.
“Even when we got behind, we knew we were going to win
it,” said Ringel, who led the No. 21 Bruins with 17 kills.
“We looked each other in the eyes, and that was
it.”
The victory was particularly crucial for UCLA (16-12, 9-8
Pac-10) because they moved ahead of the Sun Devils (12-10, 8-9) in
conference play and likely secured a bid to the NCAA Tournament.
Nonetheless, there were several moments during the match when the
Bruins appeared to be headed for defeat.
UCLA dropped the first game of the match, before rebounding
behind the passing of sophomore Krystal McFarland and the arm of
senior Lauren Fendrick, who notched nine of her 16 kills in games
two and three.
But in the fourth game, the Bruins collapsed as the
squad’s intensity seemed to wane. UCLA hit an anemic .000 in
the game, and failed to generate any sort of rhythm
offensively.
“I thought we came out overconfident in game four,”
head coach Andy Banachowski said. “We made it a little
tougher on ourselves tonight than we needed to. We really did not
attack very well at all.”
The teams traded points early in game five before the Sun Devils
reeled off four points in a row, culminating in an error by UCLA
sophomore Brynn Murphy, giving Arizona State a seemingly
insurmountable 10-6 lead.
But Murphy redeemed herself by playing tough defense, and
ultimately serving the final four points of the match for UCLA.
“We needed some serves with some pace on them to put the
pressure on the other team,” Banachowski said. “Brynn
hadn’t been serving particularly well tonight, but she came
through at the end.”
Perhaps the biggest key for the Bruins was their defense against
the Sun Devils’ Juliana Escobar.
The Sun Devils leading hitter torched UCLA for 23 kills in the
first meeting between the teams back in September, but the Bruins
kept her in check last night. Led by Cira Wright’s career
high 5.5 blocks, they held Escobar to just 15 kills with as many
errors.
“Escobar has been their featured player,”
Banachowski said. “We set up a good defensive allignment on
her, and executed that very well.”
The victory leaves the Bruins with a golden opportunity to
improve their playoff standing with a victory over No. 16 Arizona
tomorow night.
“I think tomorrow’s match is going to be even more
emotional,” Murphy said. “Arizona beat us the last
time, so we need to get some payback against them too.”