W. VOLLEYBALL Friday, 6:30 p.m. v. Oklahoma
Honolulu, Hawaii
Usually when the women’s volleyball team travels to
Hawaii, its members find time to have dinner at Duke’s
Waikiki Restaurant, overlooking the sandy beaches and the clear,
blue Pacific Ocean. They also like to get in some shopping and soak
up some Hawaiian sun.
But this weekend, the No. 4 Bruins will not have the time to
enjoy any of this aloha spirit. As the NCAA Regionals are upon
them, this trip to Honolulu is all business.
“I think there will be certain rules, like you can’t
go to the beach, or you can’t be out in the sun ““
(coach Andy Banachowski) won’t want us doing that,”
said outside hitter Katie Carter, who, along with the rest of the
team, received a pink lei after defeating Utah last Saturday.
“He’ll probably be very strict on resting.
We’ll all be pretty good about that because, you know ““
national championship, or staying in your room while you’re
in Hawaii?” Carter said.
UCLA (31-3) has a date with No. 12 Oklahoma (28-5) in the
regional semifinals Friday at 6:30 p.m,, to be followed by the
matchup between host school No. 11 Hawai’i and No. 5 USC at 9
p.m. Though the potential bout against the winner of the
Hawai’i-USC game weighs on the Bruins’ minds, they are
making sure not to overlook Oklahoma.
“Anything could happen at this point,” Carter said.
“(Oklahoma is) definitely going to give us a good fight.
I’m sure a lot of these underdogs are going to be looking for
(an upset). Hopefully we’ll just roll over them and sweep
like we did last weekend; that would be awesome. But I expect them
to be pretty good. They’ll be out for us, so hopefully
we’ll be prepared.”
The Sooners are having one of their best seasons in school
history, with the recently released No. 12 ranking, their highest
in history, according to SoonerSports.com. Oklahoma women’s
volleyball also finished second in the Big 12 this year ““ the
team’s best finish ever ““ with a 17-3 record.
But the Bruins are well aware of the intensity Oklahoma will
bring, and they will be making sure not to let the Sooners pull the
wool over their eyes. The Bruins are the fourth seed, while the
Sooners are seeded 13th.
“They’ve had a great year,” Banachowski said.
“They’re an athletic team. They’ve got good
speed. They play an aggressive-style ball.”
Barring a surprise victory by the Sooners that would shake up
the bracket, UCLA will likely live another day to face either USC
or Hawai’i on Saturday in the regional finals at 8:30
p.m.
But whom would the Bruins rather face: a feisty USC squad from
whom they’ve already squeezed out two victories; or
Hawai’i, with thousands of supporters filling the arena, whom
they swept early in September?
“It would be fun to play Hawai’i because it’s
their home town and they have a lot of fans,” setter Nellie
Spicer said. “But ‘SC, they’re always fun to play
against.”
“People say it’s hard to beat a team three
times,” Carter said. “So maybe if we played
Hawai’i, it would be easier. But we know USC is going to be
out for us, and we know Hawai’i is going to be out for us
because we’ve swept both of them. Either (matchup) is going
to be good.”
As the NCAA Tournament advances, UCLA’s opponents are only
getting tougher and tougher. But the Bruins feel their destiny is
in their own hands.
“This weekend is just as hard as we make it,” Carter
said. “If we just play on our own side and we’re
focused, everything is going to be a piece of cake. But if we make
it a bigger deal than it is, it’s going to be tough. I think
the ball is in our court; we have to decide what we want to do,
because we could totally just roll over both of these
teams.”
Should the Bruins pick off Oklahoma on Friday, they will advance
out of the regional semifinals for the first time since 2001, when
Long Beach State took the Bruins out of the running. UCLA has been
unable to reach the regional final game since then, despite making
it to the regional semifinals for the past four years.
“We’ve been (to the regional semifinals) a
lot,” said Banachowski, who has seen seven of his past eight
teams make it to that round, three of which continued on to the
regional finals.
“Its tough to move on past that round. But I think
we’ve got the best chance that we’ve ever had.
We’ve got a really solid team, with the kids playing really
well,” Banachowski said.