With an ace, the women’s volleyball team came out roaring
against Stanford. But five hard-fought games later, the Bruins saw
their undefeated season go down with an ace.
A boisterous crowd of 2,320 ““ the largest attendance at
Pauley Pavilion this year ““ came to see UCLA justify its No.
3 ranking and undefeated season against its toughest challenge yet
in annual powerhouse Stanford. Instead, the myriad of hopeful
supporters witnessed the Bruins fall in five games, 30-27, 27-30,
25-30, 30-25, 15-10.
It was almost inevitable that UCLA would drop a match this
season, and the day finally came Friday against the No. 6 Cardinal,
which came into the match with a 10-match winning streak against
the Bruins. UCLA (20-1, 7-1 Pac-10) still sits atop the conference
standings, but Stanford (15-2, 6-1) is right behind, along with USC
(18-1, 7-1), which also dropped its first conference match of the
season to Stanford in three games Thursday.
“I think that the Pac-10 is interesting,” said
outside hitter Katie Carter, who led the Bruins with 19 kills.
“Everyone is so good; it kind of just depends on who plays
better that night.
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“If you look at the record, it’s so weird because
Washington killed Stanford, yet Stanford beat us, and we beat
Washington. The Pac-10 is so good and the skill level is so high,
that it really just depends on the night and which court the ball
falls on, basically.”
But Friday on the Bruins’ own floor, the ball was in
Stanford’s court.
Coming into the match, the Bruins were well aware of the danger
posed by Stanford outside hitters Kristin Richards, Pac-10 Player
of the Week, and Cynthia Barboza. Together, they are a formidable
force, combining for an average of 8.38 kills per game this
season.
Friday was no different, as the Cardinal tandem amassed 21 kills
apiece. However, the Bruins were able to suppress the threats on
the outside, holding Richards to an adequate .289 clip and Barboza
to a .159 kill percentage ““ well below her typical .298.
“Throughout the whole game we kind of contained
them,” said middle blocker Nana Meriwether, who put up five
blocks and downed 17 kills on the night. “They’re a
very outside team, so we were successful in stopping their outsides
tonight.”
“Their outside hitters are definitely very strong,”
Carter said. “But I think we did a good job of shutting down
Barboza.”
The Bruins limited Barboza, who took an astounding 69 swings on
the night, to 21 successful attempts and 10 errors.
But in the end, it was not the outsides who trampled UCLA
““ it was the Cardinal middles who had a field day. Led by
Foluke Akinradewo, Stanford was able to successfully and
successively give the Bruins a headache. At six feet, three inches
tall and with perhaps the widest arm span on the floor, Akinradewo
easily put down 18 kills at a .458 average.
“We’ve been having trouble blocking the
slides,” Meriwether said of Akinradewo, who ran the slide and
step-out maneuvers often throughout the night. “But
we’re definitely working hard on giving more focus to
it.”
“All throughout the game, we couldn’t get up on
Foluke,” Carter said. “She was fast.”
Early in the game, the Bruins were able to match the Cardinal
stride for stride, and took a 2-1 game lead. But in the fourth and
fifth sets, Richards and Barboza came up big in the crucial moments
of the match, showing just why they are considered the most
dangerous pair of outside hitters in the nation. Barboza put down
nine of her 21 kills in the final two games, while Richards
remained solid, adding six kills.
“It was really disappointing for us to let it slip
away,” UCLA coach Andy Banachowski said. “I don’t
think we relaxed; I think Stanford did a great job of stepping up
their play.”
But despite the first loss of the season, the players as well as
the fans are accepting the defeat and moving on.
“All in all, we’re taking this (loss) the right
way,” Carter said. “We’re going to use this to
fuel us for ‘SC (on Friday). We know how that feeling felt,
and that’s not going to happen again. We just made a pact
inside that it’s not going to happen again for the rest of
the season.”
BREAST CANCER AWARENESS NIGHT: To promote
breast cancer awareness, UCLA distributed breast cancer awareness
ribbons and stickers, as well as blue T-shirts with pink
“UCLA” script and pink ribbon, to spectators at the
gate Friday. Assistant coach Kim Jagd, who was diagnosed with Stage
1 breast cancer earlier this year, sat on the bench wearing the
pink-scripted T-shirt as well.
Before the match began, members of the Bruin volleyball team
gave small breast cancer awareness mementos to their Stanford
counterparts.