Sports often run in streaks.
When the mysterious intangibles of sport result in a victory,
call it fate. On the losing end, call it a curse. But just
don’t call it a fluke.
Over the long haul, streaks and trends tend to balance out. But
sometimes, things just aren’t even. Three wins in a row?
That’s a nice spurt. Ten wins? An excellent run. Forty-four
wins? Nearly unfathomable.
But those are the numbers, and the numbers don’t lie. The
UCLA women’s volleyball team began playing the California
Golden Bears in the NCAAs way back in 1980, and won that match 2-1.
They have done nothing but win since: 24 years and 44 wins, a
Pac-10 record, and a streak they will look to extend Friday at
Pauley Pavilion. Between 1988 and 1995, Cal managed to win only
four individual games to UCLA’s 54. The record is simply
ludicrous.
But at least one Bay Area team can claim a history of success
against UCLA. Stanford, whom the Bruins will play Saturday, has won
the last six meetings between the two conference rivals. Though
UCLA leads the all-time series 34-29, they are just 4-16 since
1994, the year the Bruins lost to the Cardinal in the NCAA
Championship match.
When you add it up, what does it all mean?
“Well, it means we’ve been better than Cal and
Stanford’s been better than us,” UCLA coach Andy
Banachowski said.
He should know. Banachowski is the only coach the team has ever
had, and has seen every victory and defeat.
There have been close calls on both sides. The Bruins let a
golden opportunity to finally beat the Cardinal at Pauley Pavilion
slip through their fingers in 2001, surrendering a 2-0 lead to lose
3-2. They were unable to finish last season in Palo Alto, again
frittering away a two-game lead to snatch defeat from the jaws of
victory.
It’s been so long that only one current player on the
roster, senior setter Krystal McFarland, has actually beaten the
Cardinal, when she was a freshman in 2000. She didn’t recall
much about what happened that year.
“I just remember it felt great to beat them. Stanford is
always good, and I want my teammates to have that feeling,”
she said.
Last season UCLA trailed Cal 2-1 at Berkeley, but rallied for an
incredible five-game victory. At the time, the Golden Bears were
ranked higher than UCLA, something that would’ve been unheard
of in years past.
“Certainly, we don’t want to be known as the first
team to lose to Cal,” McFarland said. “It’s
something to keep in the back of your mind.”
Needless to say, Banachowski doesn’t exactly stress the
importance of the streak more than any other game against any other
opponent.
Yet perhaps the most amazing thing about the streak is that most
of the team had no idea it even existed. Newcomer Nana Meriwether,
a sophomore transfer, was totally unaware of the history between
UCLA and Cal.
“I just found out today. I guess that puts a little more
pressure on us,” she said.
Even veteran seniors McFarland and Brynn Murphy said they
discovered the streak only last year.
“We just play the game and live with the results,”
Banachowski said. “It is an amazing thing, but I’ve
never given it a second thought. We’re fortunate to have such
a lopsided record against them.”
The Golden Bears will be without their star player, former
All-American Mia Jerkov. After competing against Russian
professionals while playing for the Croatian national team, her
eligibility for NCAA competition was questionable. But it proved to
be a moot point when Jerkov decided not to return to Cal. Without
Jerkov, Cal has compiled a 7-5 record (2-1 Pac-10) and a top-20
national ranking. Its record of futility doesn’t figure to
improve against the No. 10 Bruins (10-3, 3-1) though.
No. 14 Stanford (10-3, 3-0) features a powerful attack led by
Athens Olympian Ogonna Nnamani, and is no doubt eager to continue
its run against UCLA.
Still, with a victory against Arizona last weekend, the Bruins
ended a five-match losing streak to the Wildcats, and the team is
hoping that performance will propel them over the proverbial hump
and seal a win over the Cardinal. The odds are stacked against
either one happening, but sports often have a strange way of
turning themselves around.
“That Arizona streak is over, we got that one,”
Murphy said. “(Beating Stanford) is just another step we have
to take.”
It’s said that every streak must eventually come to an
end. After 24 ridiculously long years, the Golden Bears are hoping
their time has come. And after a recent run of frustration, UCLA is
hoping the tides have turned against Stanford. Despite history,
only one thing is certain: Nobody knows which streak will be left
standing by the end of this season.