UCLA Women's Volleyball
Roles Reversed as #18 Oregon Tops Seventh-Ranked Bruins
Nov. 21, 2009
EUGENE, Ore. - In their first match this season, UCLA won the first two sets, Oregon took the next two, but the Bruins triumphed in five. On Saturday, the Bruins again claimed the first two sets, with the Ducks winning the third and fourth. However, this time the 18th-ranked Ducks won the deciding set, defeating #7 UCLA in five at McArthur Court. Scores were 23-25, 18-25, 25-22, 27-25, 17-15.
The Bruins fall to 21-8 overall and 11-5 in Pac-10 play, while the Ducks improve to 17-9 and 7-9 in league.
Senior Kaitlin Sather and junior Dicey McGraw paced the Bruins with 16 kills apiece, with Sather adding 11 digs for her team-best 16th double-double. Cook posted her 14th double-double with a career-high 56 assists to go along with 12 digs. Sophomore Katie Camp had 11 kills and eight blocks, while freshman Mari Hole was also in double figures in kills with 11. Sophomore Lainey Gera recorded 21 digs. The Bruins hit .319 with 13 blocks.
The Bruins never trailed in the opening set, but not without some tenuous moments at the end. UCLA scored six of the first seven, netting the first three on a McGraw kill and back-to-back Oregon attack errors. After a Duck sideout, the Bruins had another 3-0 run on a Sather kill, an Oregon error and a spike by sophomore Amanda Gil. The Ducks scored the next two points, but a third 3-0 UCLA run on an Oregon service error, a Hole kill and a Camp/Sather combo block gave the Bruins a set high lead of six at 9-3.
Oregon closed the gap to two at 14-12, and after 14 straight sideouts, the home squad finally got back to even at 21-all. The next four points were sideouts, and at 23-all, McGraw recorded a kill to give the Bruins a set point. UCLA took the opener on an Oregon attack error to win it 25-23. Camp had five kills to pace the Bruins, while McGraw and Sather posted four apiece. The Ducks out-hit the Bruins .368 to .361.
The Bruins lost the first point of the second set, but scored the next four on two Oregon attack errors, a McGraw kill and a Gil/McGraw combo block to take a 4-1 advantage. The Ducks rallied to re-take the lead at 8-7, but an Oregon error and a Camp/McGraw combo roof put the Bruins back on top 9-8. Oregon scored four of the next five to go ahead 12-10, but the Bruins had another rally in them, netting five of the next seven to take the lead for good at 15-14. McGraw had a pair of kills during the 5-2 run, Hole and Sather also had spikes and freshman Bojana Todorovic served an ace.
Tied at 15, the Bruins scored three straight and five of six to go ahead 20-16. A Camp/Hole block started the run, which was followed by a Hole kill and an Oregon attack error. After a Duck sideout, back-to-back kills by Cook and Camp put UCLA ahead by four. The Ducks scored two of the next three to make it 21-18, but the Bruins notched the final four points of the set to take it 25-18. Gil began the run with a kill, which was followed by a Duck attack error, a Sather spike and another Oregon error on set point. Six different Bruins had kills, with Hole and McGraw each recording three. The Bruins out-hit the Ducks .387 to .057 and had four blocks.
The Bruins scored the first point of the set, but the Ducks came back with the next six and never looked back to take the third set. Oregon got its lead up to as many as nine at 13-4 before UCLA started to chip away. The Bruins scored four of the next five on a Camp kill and three Duck attack errors to close to within six at 14-8. Down 15-8, the Bruins got five straight to cut their deficit to two at 15-13. After an Oregon attack error, UCLA got back-to-back kills by Sather, a Gil/Sather combo block and a McGraw kill.
The Ducks responded though with four of the next five to take a 19-14 advantage. The home team’s lead never dipped below two the rest of the way, as a kill by Sonja Newcombe on the Ducks’ second set point gave them a 25-22 victory. Sather led the Bruins with five kills, while McGraw added four. UCLA out-hit Oregon .364 to .310.
The first half of the fourth set featured nine ties and three lead changes, with the Bruins’ biggest lead being one and the Ducks’ largest advantage being three. Trailing 17-14, the Bruins scored four of the next five to even the set at 18. Hole had a kill to start the 4-1 run, which was followed by a combo block by Camp and freshman Rachael Kidder. After an Oregon sideout, McGraw had back-to-back kills to knot the score.
The Ducks then scored four in a row and five of the next six to take a 23-19 lead, but the Bruins stormed back with the next five to earn a match point. Following an Oregon service error, Hole had a kill, Todorovic served an ace and Sather and Hole had consecutive spikes to make it 24-23. The Ducks netted a sideout to tie it at 24, but the Bruins got their second match point following a Sather kill. However, Oregon came back with the next three points to win it 27-25. Sather had five kills for the Bruins, while Hole added four. The Bruins were out-hit .313 to .297.
The fifth set was tied at five before a 3-0 Oregon run gave the home squad an 8-5 edge. The Ducks upped their lead to four at 12-8, but the Bruins came back with three straight on back-to-back kills by McGraw and a Gera ace to make it 12-11.
The Ducks took a 14-12 lead for their first match point, but three straight for UCLA on a kill by Gil and consecutive combo blocks by Gil and Sather and Gil and Todorovic gave the Bruins their third match point at 15-14. However, Oregon answered with the next three, as a combo roof by Neticia Enesi and Heather Meyers gave the Ducks a 17-15 win. McGraw and Todorovic each had three kills in the final set. The Ducks out-hit the Bruins .226 to .154.
Newcombe had 28 kills and 25 digs to lead the Ducks, who hit .263 as a team. Meyers (17), Enesi (15) and Dana Stephenson (11) also had double figures in kills.
The Bruins close out the regular season at Pauley Pavilion next weekend, facing Arizona on Friday and Arizona State on Saturday. First serve for both matches is at 3 p.m. Gametracker and free audio and video will be available at UCLABruins.com.
--- UCLABRUINS.COM ---
Eagles rally back from two sets down to topple the Hornets 3-2 and finish the regular season in second place in the Big Sky Conference
The Eastern Washington University volleyball team dropped the first two sets but came back to defeat the Sacramento State Hornets 3-2 Saturday night (Nov. 21) in Sacramento, Calif. The scores were 19-25, 22-25, 25-19, 25-23 and 15-13.
Eastern's Chenoa Coviare finished the match hitting .385 with 19 kills, and Ashley Hamilton finished with 50 assists and 12 digs.Hayley Hills added 11 kills with 13 digs and Sara Todorovich contributed 10 kills. Libero JaNae Mortensen had a team-high 23 digs.
The Eagles (18-10, 12-4) entered tonight's match in a tie for second place with Northern Colorado, each sporting league records of 11-4. Northern Colorado also won tonight against Northern Arizona 3-1, but because Eastern swept the Bears in their matches this season, the Eagles own the tiebreaker and finish in second-place.
Eastern will host the four-team Big Sky Conference Championships on Nov. 27-28 at Reese Court. The Eagles are the No. 2 seed, thus will match up with No. 3 seed Northern Colorado on Friday (Nov. 27) at 7 p.m. The No. 1 seed Portland State will take on No. 4 seed Montana. The winners of the semifinals will play in the title game, with that winner earning the league's automatic berth into the NCAA Tournament, which starts the following weekend.
The Eagles previously hosted the tournament in 2004, 2003, 2002 and 1989.
Titans Sweep UCR Volleyball To Spoil Senior Day
Riverside, CA - The UC Riverside volleyball team celebrated senior day on Saturday evening prior to their Big West match against Cal State Fullerton at the Student Rec Center, but the Titans spoiled the celebration with a sweep: 26-24, 25-15 and 25-19.
Minutes before the match started, the Highlanders honored six seniors for their contributions over the last four years: Brittney Murrey, Tonbara Youpele, Dominique Cowling, Amanda Nilsson, Angela Pizzella, and Kelley Quinn.
Youpele led the Highlanders with a game-high 15 kills while hitting .324 on the night. Nilsson tallied 12 digs while Cowling added 11.
UC Riverside had a 14-10 advantage in the first set only to see the Titans (17-12, 8-8) rally to tie the score at 15. Over the next ten points, there were nine tie scores and five lead changes as each team volleyed for advantage down the stretch.
The Highlanders led 23-22 and needed just two points to win the first set, but CSF scored two straight to lead at set-point 24-23. UCR kept them at bay, however, as a Youpele kill -- one of eight in the set for the senior -- evened out the score at 24 all, but two consecutive errors on the Highlanders part gave Cal State Fullerton the 26-24 first set win.
UC Riverside opened up the second set with a 4-0 advantage, but the Titans went on a 6-1 run en route to their 25-15 win.
UC Riverside kept battling in the third set, but the Titans again got the better of the blue and gold, winning 25-19 to take home the three-set victory.
The Highlanders conclude the 2009 season with a 6-21 overall record while going 3-13 in Big West Conference play.
--
No. 4 Huskies Sweep Washington State, 25-23, 25-18 and 25-19
SEATTLE -- The No. 4-ranked Washington volleyball avenged an earlier loss with a three-set sweep of cross-state rival Washington State Saturday night in front of a crowd of 5,807 at Bank of America Arena. Washington won by scores of 25-23, 25-18, and 25-19.
Earlier this season in Pullman, the Cougars (17-11 overall, 5-11 Pac-10) handed the Huskies their second loss of the season.
"I feel like we're getting ready for the tournament," said Husky head coach Jim McLaughlin. "At the end of game one, we did some very consistent things. We were moving well, passing well and hitting well. The end of game one was the key, and then we kind of got into a rhythm and took off. It was a battle."
The Huskies kept pace near the top of the Pac-10 standings with the win, improving to 22-4 overall and 12-4 in the Pac-10. First-place Stanford, which has only one conference match remaining, beat Arizona State Saturday to improve to 20-7 overall and 13-4 in the conference.
Washington's two remaining home matches come next weekend at Bank of America Arena vs. Oregon and Oregon State. Wins in both would guarantee the Huskies at least a share of the Pac-10 title.
Junior Bianca Rowland led the way for the Huskies Saturday, with a match-high 16 kills while sophomore Bianca Rowland added 11 kills without an error in 17 attempts, good for a .647 hitting percentage. Becky Perry also reached double figures in kills with 12. She made only three errors in 26 attempts.
Washington State's Meagan Ganzer had 13 kills and only two errors to pace the Cougars.
The first set was about as close as it could have been as neither team ever took more than a three-point lead. The game was tied on 10 different occasions before, at 14-14, the Huskies took a lead they never again surrendered.
With the UW ahead 20-19, three Kindra Carlson kills out of four Husky points nearly got the Dawgs to the finish line and, after WSU fought off two set points, a kill from Becky Perry ended it.
The second set was a little more one-sided in favor of the UW. The Huskies trailed very early at 2-1, but went in front with three straight points and never fell back into a tie or a deficit again, stretching their advantage to as many as eight points at 22-14.
After the Cougars narrowed the gap to 23-18, another Carlson kill got it to set point and a block from Carlson and Lauren Barfield ended it at 25-18.
Washington never trailed in the third set and pulled away late and, after WSU fought off several match points, took the third set, 25-19, on Carlson's 16th kill.
