Without heart, the volleyball court can be a cruel and lonely place. This is what the UCLA women’s volleyball team learned the hard way this weekend as it split its games against No. 19 Oregon and unranked Oregon State.
On Thursday night, the No. 4 Bruins (15-3, 5-2 Pac-10) fought with determination to overpower the Oregon Ducks (14-6, 3-5), dueling it out to the last point in the four-game match, 31-29, 22-30, 30-24, 36-34. But on Friday, although crushing the Beavers (9-11, 2-6) in Games 2 and 4, UCLA fell in five sets 31-29, 16-30, 30-27, 17-30, 15-13.
Led by outside hitters Ali Daley and Dicey McGraw, who had the best performance of her UCLA career, the Bruins fended off the Ducks on Thursday.
“She had a good week in practice,” coach Andy Banachowski said of McGraw, who posted a career-high 18 kills. “She was jumping really well, and she said she felt really good.”
It was another spectacular night for Daley, who, with her 19 kills and 11 digs, came through in the clutch for the team, putting down all three game points.
“I think my team has a lot of faith in me to put the ball down,” Daley said. “It’s my responsibility as an outside.”
And it was Daley whom the Bruins turned to again Friday to pull through the rough patches. The junior was given 66 sets on the night and put down 26 of those as kills. Yet this career performance simply was not enough to put away the Beavers. UCLA knew it needed something more than kills but it was unable to provide.
“I guess we just didn’t bring enough heart,” Daley said. “I think we let up. We took them for granted. It was all a matter of self-discipline; we made our own errors.”
Outside hitter Kaitlin Sather had 15 kills and 13 digs against Oregon State and setter Nellie Spicer had 52 assists. But, as often happens after a grueling match the night before, the determination to play hard against an unranked school was a factor in the loss Friday.
“I wasn’t very disappointed with our overall effort and attitude coming into the match,” Banachowski said. “We had a tough match (Thursday), a narrow escape, if you will. Everybody hoped it would be easier tonight. But it’s just not that way in the Pac-10; everybody is good.”
Spurred on by the cheers and encouragement of the Oregon State women’s soccer team, which was in town to play USC and UCLA this weekend, the Beavers had yet another motivation to win.
Despite having only achieved one victory in the conference prior to the Friday upset over UCLA, Oregon State has its own accomplished player in Rachel Rourke. The sophomore outside hitter ranks third in the conference with 4.5 kills per game and second with her 5.32 points per game. On Friday, she further advanced those numbers, putting down 25 kills, two aces and two block assists.
“(Rourke) was very effective for them,” Banachowski said. “Our blocking didn’t do enough to slow her down, and we weren’t able to dig her.”
The Australian native pounded 10 kills in Game 3 and four in the crucial Game 5, one of which gave the Beavers a three-point advantage. UCLA was not able to close the gap before the match’s end.
“We just need to be more consistent all around,” Daley said.
With reports from Stephanie Lowe, Bruin Sports reporter.