Friday, November 20, 1998
This weekend
to determine postseason fate of Bruins
W.VOLLEYBALL: UCLA will face No. 4 Stanford, Cal in important
games
By Kimberly Edds
Daily Bruin Contributor
Can you say 64? That’s how many teams get to go the 1998 NCAA
Championships for women’s volleyball.
And No. 16 UCLA wants to be one of those teams – badly.
It can happen, too. But first they have to win at least one of
their last three matches.
And it’s not going to be easy, especially since UCLA opens the
weekend against No. 4 Stanford.
But if anyone can do it, the Bruins can. After losing the first
six games of the season, UCLA (13-10 overall, 12-4 Pac-10) has come
back with a vengeance, winning 10 of their last 11 games while
playing the second toughest schedule in the nation.
A big part of their recent success is freshman Kristee Porter.
Outside hitter Porter has really stepped up for her team, averaging
5.31 kills a game with a total of 467 kills. Sophomore middle
blocker Elisabeth Bachman, along with Pac-10 player of the week
Ashley Bowles, have helped lead the team.
Bachman has been on fire lately with 20 blocks and a .449
hitting percentage on the weekend. Freshman outside hitter Bowles
hit .328 with 56 kills and seven service aces against Washington
and Washington State.
Bowles became just the second UCLA freshman to record 30-kills
in a single match when she notched a career-high 35 kills against
Washington on Nov. 13. Porter is the only other freshman to do
so.
Bowles is going to have to have another great outing if the
Bruins want to have a shot at the defending Pac-10 champion,
Stanford (23-2 overall, 16-0 Pac-10). The Cardinal can clinch this
year’s conference crown with just one victory this weekend. They
also face No. 11 USC on Sunday.
If there is one word to describe Stanford, it would be
defense.
Stanford’s defense is dominating – just ask Oregon. The Cardinal
held Oregon to just eight points, total, last weekend. Then they
went out and held Oregon State to 11 points. The 19 points over the
weekend is the lowest ever allowed by a Cardinal team in a Pac-10
weekend.
UCLA will have to look out for Stanford’s Jennifer Detmer. The
sophomore middle blocker is ranked first in the Pac-10 with blocks
per game with 1.65. Detmer has a team high 145 blocks, while
hitting .351 and averaging 3.31 kills a game.
The Cardinal is undefeated in Pac-10 play this year.
The Bruins need to finish strong to make their bid for the
tournament even more convincing, and this means beating unranked
Cal on Sunday. Cal (7-20 overall, 3-13 Pac-10) is coming off a
split weekend where they defeated Oregon State in five games on
Friday to snap a seven-match losing streak, but they lost in four
games to Oregon on Sunday.
Sophomore outside hitter Alicia Perry had a career-high 25 kills
with 17 digs against OSU. UCLA will also have to be watch out for
Cal’s Candace McNamee. The freshman setter posted some impressive
numbers against OSU with 9 kills, 47 assists and 14 digs, and she
is looking to post even bigger numbers against UCLA.
Cal will have a very different look when they face UCLA, with
two of their most talented players sidelined with injuries. Outside
hitter Brook Coulter, one of the nation’s top servers, is out with
a stress fracture in her left shin and outside hitter Jameka
Stevens has an injured right shoulder.
UCLA faces Stanford at 7 p.m. on Friday and Cal at 4 p.m. on
Sunday at Pauley Pavilion.
The 64-team field for the 1998 NCAA Championships will be
announced on Nov. 29.
Comments, feedback, problems?
© 1998 ASUCLA Communications Board[Home]