Usually when a team has its best performance of the year, it is
rewarded with a win.
This was not the case for the UCLA women’s volleyball
team, who was defeated by USC for the 11th consecutive time on
Friday.
Despite a valiant effort characterized as the team’s most
productive game of the year, No. 22 UCLA was unable to break its
five-year losing streak against No. 17 USC, falling 35-37, 30-26,
22-30, 30-32.
But having their best game of the year was small consolation for
the Bruins, who left USC’s campus empty-handed once
again.
“This sucks,” freshman Kaitlin Sather said.
“My life sucks right now. I hate losing, especially to
USC.”
In comparison to its loss to USC a month ago, UCLA (11-8, 4-6
Pac-10) played with more vigor and intensity through each
point.
Aside from any intangible that might have impacted the rivalry,
the Bruins had much better collective statistics than last month in
every category.
“This performance was our best performance of the
year,” UCLA coach Andy Banachowski said. “We certainly
were improved since the last time we played (USC). This is the best
that we’ve played on their court in number of years.
“We’re getting better, and obviously we’re not
up to their level quite yet, but we’re pretty damn
close.”
The Bruins came out with a vengeance in Game 1 as the team
racked up a season-high 29 kills and hit .344 behind the excellent
play of Sather, who hit nine kills in only 16 attempts (.500) for
the game.
However, UCLA’s excellent performance was countered by
superb play from the Trojans, who managed to hit at a .419 clip
with 27 kills and only one error.
Freshman libero Jordan Smith led the resilient Bruin defense
with 13 digs in the first game alone, but the team was unable to
come out on top at the end of the first battle.
Despite rallying from a 26-29 deficit and trading side outs with
the Trojans for seven straight points, the Bruins lost in
USC’s longest game in the rally-scoring era, a new system of
scoring which was introduced in 2001.
The slugfest continued into Game 2, as the teams matched points
for the majority of the game. Tied at 20-20, the Bruins scored the
next four points after a Sather ace to give them the lead for
good.
“Our strong digging has a lot to do with our block because
now that they know where the block is going to be, they can dig
around it, and we’re doing a really good job with
that,” senior middle blocker Nancy Barba said.
Barba came up huge for the Bruins, hitting at a team-high .619
clip with 14 kills in only 21 attempts.
But ultimately, UCLA was defeated by the superior play of the
Trojans. USC had two players with over 20 kills, while the Bruins
had none.
The Trojans also had strong defense with nine blocks and 97
total digs. The Bruins received 33 digs from Trojan libero Debora
Seilhamer, who leads the nation in digs per game with 6.37.