MICHAEL ROSS WACHT/Daily Bruin Senior Staff
Kristee Porter battles at the net against a Morgan
State player in the Bruins’ three-game sweep Saturday. UCLA beat
Michigan St. Sunday to reach the Midwest Region Semifinals in
Wisconsin. NCAA Tournament UCLA
d. Morgan State 15-4, 15-6, 15-5 UCLA d. Michigan
State 15-7, 13-15, 14-16, 15-6, 15-9
By AJ Cadman
Daily Bruin Senior Staff
Consistency has been the Achilles heel of the UCLA women’s
volleyball team all year long.
And on Sunday afternoon the Bruins (24-7) were happy to just get
clutch passing and serving to outlast Michigan State (18-13) 15-7,
13-15, 14-16, 15-6,
15-9 in a two-hour, 47-minute marathon during the team’s
second-round NCAA tournament victory at Pauley Pavilion. UCLA now
advances to the Sweet 16, where they will face Pacific on Friday in
Wisconsin.
“We expect this level and style of play more and more as
we go deeper into the tournament,” said UCLA head coach Andy
Banachowski. “We’re going to see more powerful teams.
Today was a good lesson for us.”
UCLA was led by junior outside hitter Kristee Porter’s
career-high-tying 38 kills, as well as her 18 digs. Junior opposite
Ashley Bowles had 25 kills and 21 digs, senior middle blocker
Elisabeth Bachman had 21 kills and seven block assists, and junior
setter Erika Selsor had a career high 89 set assists.
The Spartans were paced by Erin Hartley’s 21 kills and 18
assists, while Jenny Rood notched 16 kills and 13 assists.
The Bruins fell behind 5-0 in game one as Michigan State
attempted to slow Porter with at the net. Poor passing by UCLA
aided the cause. A UCLA timeout ignited the Bruins to use
crosscourt kills and offspeed hits, and the Bruins closed out the
game with a 15-2 run, capturing the momentum early.
Game two featured a similar start, as the Bruins trailed 7-1
early on. Key blocking from Bachman and freshman middle blocker
Ella Harley helped the Bruins close the margin to 12-10. Porter had
one of her 10 kills in the second game to close the gap to 14-13.
However, a long hit by Lauren Fendrick closed the door on the
Bruins in game two.
“We really hoped that we would be able to keep them out of
their offense with our serving,” Banachowski said. “But
we didn’t serve very well. We ended up getting into a hitter
war at the end.”
 MICHAEL ROSS WACHT/Daily Bruin Senior Staff Erika
Selsor sets the ball in the Bruins’ three-game sweep
of Morgan State in the first round of the NCAA tournament on
Saturday. The Bruins went on to defeat Michigan State in five games
on Sunday to advance to the Sweet 16, where they will face Pacific.
The match took a different turn in game three as a seesaw battle
erupted with neither squad gaining the advantage. But with UCLA
clinging to a 7-6 lead midway through the game, Porter and Bachman
again stymied the Spartan defense with timely soft-touch kills.
The Bruins moved ahead 13-7 on a Kyla Smith spike into the net
and looked to gain control of the pivotal game. But
miscommunication and inefficient hitting opened the door for
Michigan State, who used a 6-0 run to tie the score at 13. The
Spartans closed the game 16-14 to take a 2-1 game lead.
Suddenly on the ropes, the Bruins got a quick reminder of how
successful they had been to get to the postseason.
“(Assistant coach Kim Jagd) basically talked about the
energy level and that we needed more good communication,”
Bowles said. “We were able to come back and feed off each
other’s fire.”
With their season on the line, UCLA resurrected itself from a
near-disaster to dominate the fourth game with 10 kills from Bowles
and eight digs apiece from Porter and Selsor. A 15-6 thumping sent
the match to the decisive rally-scoring fifth game.
UCLA fell behind 4-2, but that didn’t panic the
battle-tested Bruins. The team fought back on consecutive points
with a Porter soft-touch kill and a deep-court kill from
Bowles.
The Bruins never trailed again, as a 6-2 run helped them take a
10-6 lead. Easing the tension, Porter and Bachman pulled the rug
from under the Spartans with critical putaways when Michigan State
attempted to claw back into the game.
And Harley rebounded from miscues earlier in the match to seal
the victory with a solid hit to help her team win the fifth game
15-9 and send the Bruins to the NCAA regional semifinal on
Friday.
UCLA cruised past Morgan State, its opponent in the first round
of the NCAA tournament, 15-4, 15-6, 15-5 on Saturday. This was in
large part due to a stifling defense that held the Honey Bears to a
.091 hitting percentage. Meanwhile, the Bruins posted a .342
hitting percentage in their first postseason action.
“Porter is an outstanding athlete and UCLA is a very good
team,” Morgan State coach Ramona Riley Bozier said.
“We’re a very small team and we wanted to play a fast
game to take advantage of that, but we didn’t pass well
tonight and it hurt us.”