The Bruins were unable to pull off the upset against a top-ranked opponent.
“Obviously, it sucks to lose … but you know, Stanford’s the No. 2 team in the country” said senior middle blocker Kyra Rogers. “We were obviously going into the game as an underdog.”
No. 18 UCLA women’s volleyball (6-4, 1-2 Pac-12) was swept Wednesday night at No. 2 Stanford (11-1, 3-0). The loss extended the Cardinal’s home win streak to 24, currently the longest active streak in the nation. The last time the Cardinal lost at home was in 2016 to the Bruins.
The Bruins had the lead early in the opening set at 8-4, but the Cardinal scored four in a row to tie it up. Point scoring went back and forth, but Stanford pulled away at 16-16, scoring nine of the last 11 points to take the first set 25-18. The Cardinal recorded 21 kills in the set and outhit the Bruins .378 to .280.
Stanford led by as many as 12 points in the second set. But at set point for the Cardinal at 24-14, the Bruins started to fight back, scoring five in a row before Stanford was able to take the set 25-19 on their sixth set point.
“I think we did a really good job of hanging in there,” said junior middle blocker Madeleine Gates. “They are just a really good top team in the Pac-12 and in the nation, and I think there were moments in the game, pretty long stretches actually, where we were giving them a tough time and working hard.”
The Bruins kept momentum at the beginning of the third set, scoring first on a kill from sophomore outside hitter Mac May, and then managing to extend that lead to up to five points at 8-3. But Stanford again came back, tying the match at 13 and going on to take the lead for good, eventually winning the set 25-17 to complete the sweep.
The Bruins finished the match with 28 kills, just over half of the Cardinal’s 55 on the night. They were also outhit by the Cardinal .316 to .121 overall.
“They have five really great hitters on the floor,” said coach Michael Sealy. “You can’t devote all your time to all of them, so we identified a couple hitters that we knew we had to stop one-on-one. But we didn’t do that, and that definitely affected our ability to execute.”
May led the Bruins with nine kills and two service aces, and Gates and Rogers followed with seven and six kills, respectively. Junior libero Savvy Simo had 13 digs and junior setter Kylie Miller posted 26 assists and eight digs to contribute to the effort.
UCLA will have a chance to bounce back as they play unranked California on the road Friday night. The Bruins have won their last seven matches against the Golden Bears, sweeping them in both of their matches last season.