The Bruins found themselves on both ends of back-to-back sweeps this weekend.
After defeating Washington State 25-17, 25-16, 25-17 on Friday, UCLA lost to Washington 25-20, 26-24, 25-17 on Saturday.
Washington hit its way to a 25-20 first-set victory in the second game of UCLA’s road trip. Washington senior outside hitters Kindra Carlson and Becky Perry led the Huskies with six and four kills, respectively, in the opening set. After trailing 2-1, Washington took the lead and held on to it for the rest of the set. The Huskies took their biggest lead of the set at 24-19, and a Perry kill gave No. 10 Washington the set-winning point.
The Huskies took the second set despite letting the Bruins get within one point from tying the match. With the set tied at 23, UCLA sophomore outside hitter Bojana Todorovic hit a kill to give the Bruins a set point, but back-to-back attack errors by junior setter Lauren Van Orden put the Huskies up 25-24. A block by Perry and junior middle blocker Lauren Barfield won the set.
The Huskies (14-1, 3-1 Pac-10) were comfortably ahead for the second half of the third set and went up by eight at 21-13. A kill by sophomore outside hitter Kylin Munoz was the match-winning point. Carlson and Perry led Washington with 13 and 11 kills, respectively, and the Huskies hit .331 for the match, while the Bruins hit .115. Senior outside hitter Dicey McGraw led No. 12 UCLA with 12 kills and Todorovic was second with nine.
Coach Mike Sealy said the Bruins needed to play clean volleyball in order to counter the Huskies’ attack.
“Because we are physically outmatched by them as far as size and strength, we’ve got to make sure we can be pretty efficient, and we just had kind of an off night with our ball control,” Sealy said.
The night before, the Bruins (11-3, 1-2) swept Washington State, and Van Orden said the win was important for the team’s morale going into Saturday’s match.
“It’s good to have that kind of confidence-building match before a game like Washington,” Van Orden said.
UCLA pulled away late in the first set after Washington State (6-7, 0-3) stayed close behind early. With the set tied at 13, UCLA went on a 5-0 run and took an eight-point lead after a block by Todorovic and freshman middle blocker Mariana Aquino. A kill from sophomore outside hitter Mari Hole finished the set.
In the second set, the Bruins went up double digits at 19-8, and their lead never dipped below seven for the rest of the set. UCLA began increasing its third-set lead when it took a 13-8 lead from a Todorovic kill, and a kill by Van Orden sealed the match.
McGraw led the Bruins with 13 kills, while Todorovic recorded her highest kill total of the season with 11 and also set a career-high with a .529 hitting clip.
Todorovic is confident that her team will hold its own during a challenging Pac-10 schedule.
“I think that Cal, Stanford, even Washington next time, whoever we play, we’re going to give them something to fight with,” Todorovic said.