The weekend matches may have been played in Oregon, but the UCLA women’s volleyball team hosted its own block party.
The No. 10 Bruins piled on the blocks in wins against Oregon and Oregon State on Friday and Sunday, respectively. UCLA put on a clinic in the 25-14, 26-24, 25-21 win against Oregon State, a match that saw 13 Bruin blocks in three sets.
“We were joking on the bench that we blocked like four of the first five points,” coach Mike Sealy said of the Oregon State match. “We kind of matched our season average in the first five points in the game.”
The Bruins (21-7, 11-6 Pac-10) have been averaging 2.31 blocks per set this season, an average that Mariana Aquino topped by herself on Sunday. The freshman middle blocker led the defensive display against the Beavers (8-22, 1-15), recording a career-high seven blocks.
“We haven’t been an amazing blocking team, per se, but we’re a good block defense team,” Sealy said. “We were just good about setting up at a certain part of the net. They were hitting into us, and balls were going down.”
The Bruins had similar success in Friday’s win against Oregon in a 25-15, 25-20, 19-25, 25-20 victory. The Bruins had 10 blocks against the Ducks (18-10, 6-10), and the team saw another career mark for one of the players, as senior outside hitter Dicey McGraw tied her career-best with 24 kills. The victory over No. 23 Oregon marked UCLA’s first road victory in more than a month. The Bruins wanted to finish strong in their final road series in the regular season.
“We were really focused,” McGraw said. “We are winding down our season, and we definitely want to end our season right with a few wins.”
The Bruins had not been on the road since the Cal-Stanford series, a weekend in which the Bruins suffered two losses. In preparation for the Oregon matches, the Bruins focused on a strategy that they have been working on all season.
“We definitely had to get back to the basics,” McGraw said. “We had to play our game and focus on our side of the net and not theirs.”
Oregon State and Oregon were able to develop leads early in some of the sets, but UCLA kept calm.
“We just have to stay in control the whole time,” junior libero Lainey Gera said. “You can’t really look at the score; we just have to battle and keep moving forward.”
Friday’s win gave UCLA its 12th consecutive 20-win season, a mark that coach Sealy said is good for NCAA Tournament seeding, but is not of utmost concern. The players also share the same mentality.
“It doesn’t matter what our winning streak is, or what our record is,” said Gera, who posted 57 total digs in the two matches. “Each match is important for us; it doesn’t matter if it’s our 20th win or not.”