CORVALLIS - Freshman Mari Hole had a match and career-high 13 kills, while senior Kaitlin Sather and freshman Lauren Cook added double-doubles, as the seventh-ranked Bruins swept Oregon State on Friday at Gill Coliseum. Scores were 25-20, 25-23, 25-16.
The Bruins improve to 21-7 overall and 11-4 in the Pac-10, while the Beavers fall to 12-15 and 3-12 in league action.
Sather posted 12 kills and 14 digs for her team-best 15th double-double, while Cook had 37 assists and 10 digs for her 13th double-double. Sophomore Lainey Gera had 15 digs. Junior Dicey McGraw added nine kills, while sophomore Amanda Gil notched seven kills and six blocks. UCLA hit .256.
The Bruins never trailed in the first set. After the first four points were sideouts, UCLA scored six of the next seven to take an 8-3 advantage. Gil began the run with a kill, which was followed by a solo block from sophomore Katie Camp. After an Oregon State sideout, the Beavers had back-to-back errors, Hole posted a kill and a Sather ace made it a five-point lead.
UCLA’s largest advantage was seven on several occasions. The Beavers made a run at the end of the set. Trailing 22-16, the home squad scored four of the next five to make it 23-20. But the Bruins netted the last two of the set on a Hole kill and a combo block by Camp and freshman Rachael Kidder to take the opener 25-20. The Bruins out-hit the Beavers .316 to .186. Hole and Sather each had four kills, while Cook posted three.
The Bruins staged a great rally in the second to take a two sets to none lead. UCLA led early 3-2, but it would be its last advantage for a while, as Oregon State scored 10 of the next 13 to take a 12-6 lead. The Beavers maintained an advantage of six at 15-9 until the Bruins started their run, scoring four straight to make it 15-13. Gil had a kill and then teamed up with Sather for a block, which was followed by back-to-back aces from freshman Bojana Todorovic to get the Bruins to within two.
Down 17-14, the Bruins got a kill from Sather and consecutive spikes by Hole to tie it for the first time since it was 3-all. The Beavers scored three of the next four to make it 20-18, but a kill by McGraw and back-to-back combo roofs by Gil and Kidder and Gil and McGraw gave UCLA its first lead since early on at 21-20. The next five points were sided out to even the score at 23, but kills by Gil and Sather gave the Bruins a 25-23 win. Hole and McGraw both had five kills in the second, Gil recorded three kills and four blocks and Sather notched three kills. The Bruins out-hit the Beavers .186 to .178.
UCLA dropped the first point of the third set, but scored the next two and never trailed for the remainder of the match. Even at two, the Bruins scored six in a row to go up 8-2. Sather started the run with a kill, and after two OSU errors, a kill by Hole made it 6-2 and forced OSU into a timeout. The Bruins came out of the break with two more points on a Sather kill and a Gil/Sather block.
Oregon State got to within three at 15-12, but the Bruins came back with three straight on a Sather kill and two Beaver attack errors to make it 18-12. The Beavers again closed the gap to four at 20-16, but UCLA netted the last five points of the match to win the third 25-16. McGraw had back-to-back kills to start the run, consecutive spikes by Sather and Gil gave the Bruins match point and an Oregon State attack error clinched things for UCLA. Sather led the Bruins with five kills, Hole added four and McGraw posted three. The Bruins out-hit the Beavers .275 to .081.
Rachel Rourke had 11 kills to lead the Beavers, who hit .152 as a team.
The Bruins face #18 Oregon on Saturday at 8 p.m. A link to live stats will be available on the women’s volleyball schedule page at UCLABruins.com.
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Beavers Fall to No. 7 UCLA
Corvallis, Ore. – The Oregon State volleyball team fell on Friday evening in three (20-25, 23-25, 16-25) to No. 7 UCLA in legendary Gill Coliseum in the first of the Beavers’ final two games of the season at home.
“We did not play the game well and we did not pass the ball well – if you cannot pass the ball at this level you cannot play,” head coach Taras Liskevych said. “We struggled closing off the second set, which was very critical. We missed several blocks, digs and the cover. The second set was there for the taking and we just let it slip away. As a team, we get better every year, but we just need to break through.”
Senior Rachel Rourke (Queensland, Australia) had a team-high 11 kills, adding four blocks, while senior Camilla Ah-Hoy (Laie, Hawai’i) had the team’s lone double-double with 27 assists and 10 digs. Junior Jill Sawatzky (St. Andrews, Manitoba) was close to a double-double with nine kills and a team-high 11 digs.
Oregon State led by as many as six in the second set, capitalizing on seven Bruin unforced errors and Rourke’s six kills, reaching 15 first at 15-9. But the Bruins battled back to take the second set by a pair behind a kill from the right side by Kaitlin Sather to give UCLA the 2-0 advantage.
UCLA’s Mari Hole led the Bruin offense with 13 kills, while libero Lainey Gera had a match-high 15 digs.
Oregon State falls to 12-15, 3-12 Pac-10, while UCLA improves to 21-7, 11-4 Pac-10.
Oregon State plays its final match of the 2009 season in legendary Gill Coliseum on Saturday against No. 15 USC at 7:00 p.m. Saturday is also Senior Night, and the five Oregon State seniors will be honored post-match.
Oregon State Notes – Senior Camilla Ah-Hoy tallied her 13th double-double of the season with 27 assists and 10 digs.
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