In the waning moments of Friday night’s loss to No. 6
Stanford, UCLA freshman Haley Jorgensborg fell to the floor after a
laser beam off the palm of the Cardinal’s Ashley Ivy hit her
square in the neck.
Staggered and seething, Jorgensborg bounced to her feet with a
look of pure fury across her face.
Harnessing that passion and intensity, No. 18 UCLA (13-10, 6-7
Pac-10) unleashed a barrage of missiles of their own the next
night, re-establishing a hitting attack that has been woefully
inconsistent all season and sweeping past California 3-0 at Pauley
Pavilion.
“Our hitting performance was a lot better tonight,”
UCLA head coach Andy Banachowski said. “I think all of our
players made good decisions tonight. We are trying to eliminate our
errors and to get better at taking advantage of
opportunities.”
Prior to defeating Cal (15-8, 5-8), the Bruins had lost four
games in a row and were mired in an offensive slump. The squad was
struggling to finish off points with any sort of regularity, and
their hitting percentage had not cleared the Mendoza Line since a
Sept. 28 victory against Washington State.
But against the Bears, UCLA came out with renewed vigor
offensively. They took advantage of a relatively diminutive Cal
front line, notching 61 kills and a .286 hitting percentage.
“We got a lot of good swings because the middles were
active,” senior Lauren Fendrick said. “We passed well
which gave people a lot of open shots. All around we just executed
better.”
Fendrick herself had a shaky October but came up huge in what
the squad deemed a “must-win” match. She led the team
with 14 kills against Cal and made just three errors in 33 total
swings.
“Lauren is a pretty awesome volleyball player,”
Banachowski said. “I think she is capable of this type of
performance every night. When she is in a rhythm and playing well,
she can do a lot of things.”
Fendrick was not the only Bruin who broke out of a hitting slump
over the weekend. After a disappointing night against Stanford,
sophomore Brynn Murphy rebounded and posted 11 kills and a .526
hitting percentage against the Bears.
Brittany Ringel also had a strong match against Cal. After a
string of errors early in the match, Ringel rebounded to tally 13
kills, including eight in the final game of the match.
“Brittany made some really excellent choices
tonight,” Banachowski said. “She struggled at one point
early in the match, but I give her a lot of credit for keeping her
head in there, and playing the way she did.”
Just as Jorgensborg was able to get back on her feet after being
knocked down against Stanford, UCLA also was able to steady itself
against the Bears.
“I got hit, and afterwards I was just pissed off about
it,” Jorgensborg said. “I just wanted to get out there
and get the next one.”
With their playoff hopes flickering, the Bruins did just
that.