After a short stint back in Westwood, the UCLA women’s volleyball team is hitting the road again.
The Bruins went 2-1 in the Chevron Rainbow Wahine Invitational in Honolulu last week and are now traveling to San Jose to participate in the SJSU/SMC Tournament. UCLA will play San Jose State (0-4) Thursday, Saint Mary’s (3-1) Friday and UC Riverside (0-3) on Saturday.
Coach Mike Sealy said the team needs to focus on the basics to improve from the weekend in Hawaii and noted that incorrect positioning resulted in missed points.
Freshman outside hitter Kelly Reeves also addressed the issue.
“We need to work on just staying low on defense,” Reeves said. “Our posture, and just blocking, being a threat at the net and going after it, and just being smart.”
The Bruins play San Jose State first in the Spartans’ gym. The Spartans only went 1-27 last year and have lost their first four games of the 2010 season, but Sealy said UCLA isn’t familiar with their tendencies and isn’t taking them lightly. Sophomore middle blocker Alex Akana leads the team in kills with 25. Freshman left side Hannah Blume is second with 24 and leads in kills per set with 2.18.
In its second match, UCLA will play Saint Mary’s, a team that finished 23-5 last year, which was good for the second-best record in school history. The Gaels won the West Coast Conference and lost to Stanford in the second round of the NCAA Tournament.
Sealy said his team will need to be ready for the Gaels’ quick style of play.
“They run the fastest offense in the country,” Sealy said. “So you need to do some scheming on your block defense side, you’re going to have to do things that you’re not used to doing.”
Gaels’ sophomore outside hitter Lauren Corp returns after being named to the All-West Coast Conference Freshman Team and is second on the team with 39 kills this season. Senior outside hitter Megan York leads the team with 42 and is also first with four digs per set.
The Bruins end their weekend road trip with UC Riverside, a team that finished 6-21 last year. The Highlanders, who had several seniors on their 2009 team, are a young team this year and are led by senior Kelly Simpson, who leads the team with three kills per set and 2.91 digs per set this season.
Though the Bruins have work to do heading into the tournament, junior middle blocker Katie Camp said her team did play with effort last weekend.
“I think one thing we did really good against Hawaii is we won almost every long rally, which means it shows that we have a lot of heart, and we have the determination to never let a play drop, and we have to continue that,” Camp said.