The Bruins are on a dangerous cusp at the moment: A season that
began with so much promise may be slowly degenerating into a march
toward mediocrity.
Early season talk of a Pac-10 championship has given way to the
very real possibility that UCLA will finish closer to the bottom
half of the conference than the top. The Bruins are currently fifth
in the conference, but after being swept by Arizona last weekend
and facing a road trip against two teams ranked ahead of them,
Stanford and California, UCLA finds itself in a precarious
position. And the Bruins are left wondering how they’re going
to get out of it.
“I wish I had an answer,” senior setter Krystal
McFarland said. “We’re still trying to fill spots, to
get it together and make it work.”
The team has been forced to adjust its expectations as a result
of injuries. The scourge of all teams has bitten the Bruins (14-7,
7-4 Pac-10) hard ““ they’ve had to play nearly the
entire season juggling different lineups.
Thus far, McFarland has missed a week with a bad ankle sprain.
Senior outside hitter Heather Cullen has hardly played all year,
alternately dealing with knee pain and back spasms. Sophomore
outside hitter Colby Lyman needed a cortisone shot in her shoulder
and had to sit out nearly the entire Arizona match.
The team has also faced conflict from within: Cullen and senior
outside hitter Brittany Ringel have faced suspensions for violating
team rules.
It’s rather simple to pinpoint the cause of UCLA’s
inconsistent play.
“We never know what lineup we’re going with,”
senior middle blocker Brynn Murphy said. “Obviously if we had
one strong lineup we’d be improving, but it’s hard to
do that when you don’t know who’s going to be out
there.”
Without the team healthy and practicing together, the Bruins
haven’t had much of a chance to develop into the powerhouse
contender they expected to be. Additionally, coach Andy Banachowski
said his team hasn’t responded to the situation well
enough.
“We’ve done a good job with it, but we haven’t
done a great job with it, and you have to do a great job to be
successful in the Pac-10,” he said.
The team is mentally fatigued by all the distractions, and is
having difficulty focusing on what it needs to do in order to
win.
“It’s hard to say what’s going on right
now,” Murphy said. “I just think we all need to focus
and get on the same wavelength and get that desire to win back. We
need to fight, play with heart.”
Although UCLA believes it’s too good a team to be
struggling the way it is right now, players are straining to find
solutions to their problems.
“It’s a little frustrating, but the bright side is
we still have another month to get ready for playoffs,”
McFarland said. “If we’re going to have our down time
its better to have it get out now than in the
tournament.”
Indeed, it is still too early to simply bury this team. But it
still appears as though the team itself is confused as to how it
should feel.
On the one hand, the Bruins are frustrated that they
haven’t been able to get on a roll during the season, but
also recognize that they’ve been hurt with injuries.
They’re not satisfied with their ranking or their Pac-10
standing, but realize that it’s relatively meaningless as
long as they’re playing well come tournament time. They agree
they need to get healthy to win, yet acknowledge the need to become
mentally tougher, rather than worrying about who’s playing
and who is not.
Resilience and creativity, two characteristics the Bruins have
lacked in recent matches, will be critical elements for UCLA if the
team has any hope of making a major push late in the year.
“This weekend we’re going with another new
lineup,” sophomore Becky Green said. “You have to try
everything because you never know who’s going down next.
We’re dropping like flies.”
The finish line is nearing, and the Bruins have precious little
time to find a combination that works. However, they remain hopeful
that they can find a Hollywood ending to a season that has nearly
gone awry.
“Every day we’re starting over,” Banachowski
said. “It’s like that movie, “˜50 First
Dates.’ This is 50 First Practices.”