DAVE HILL/Daily Bruin Senior Staff Sophomore
Lauren Fendrick and the Bruins take on Pacific in
the NCAA Tournament. WOMEN’S VOLLEYBALL UCLA @
NCAA Regionals Madison, Wisconsin UCLA vs. Pacific Friday, 4 p.m.
www.uclabruins.com
By Andrew Borders
Daily Bruin Contributor
With its five-game victory Sunday night at Pauley Pavilion over
the Michigan State Spartans, the No. 11 UCLA women’s
volleyball team (22-7 overall) earned a trip to the NCAA regional
semifinal. The Bruins face the Big West Champion No. 7 Pacific
Tigers (26-3) in Madison, Wis., on Friday.
Though the Bruins and Tigers have a head-to-head record of
12-12, the current players have never faced off, as their last
meeting was in 1994. The Bruins had won six of the last seven
against the Tigers.
Pacific has not lost since Sept. 23, when they fell in four
games to Big West foe UC Santa Barbara. UCSB and Long Beach State
are the other two Big West teams left in the tournament.
In testimony to that conference’s volleyball prowess, only
the Pac-10 (three) and the Big 10 (four) have as many teams left as
the Big West.
Pacific coach John Dunning leads a team that has swept its first
two tournament opponents, Oral Roberts and Texas A&M.
“We’ve won a lot lately, so we have some confidence.
I think we play together really well.
“We have three people who started in the Final Four last
year so I think they understand what it’s like to play at the
end of the season like this,” Dunning said.
Conventional wisdom says the Bruins must play better than they
did against unranked Michigan State if they are to knock off the
No. 7 Tigers.
“It’s always good to see a little adversity before
you play big games. I know we’re all focused and ready to
play UOP,” sophomore outside hitter Lauren Fendrick said.
“We know it’s going to be a tough match. We’re
all ready for that,” Fendrick added.
Though Pacific ranks a few notches higher than the Bruins in the
latest poll, UCLA head coach Andy Banachowski knows that rank tells
only so much about how two teams match up.
“If we stay aggressive and play aggressive, I don’t
care what the ranking is, we can play with anybody,”
Banachowski said. “We just have to play with some consistency
and with total effort all the time.”
 EDWARD LIN UCLA outside hitter Kristee
Porter sails above the net to smash the ball down in a
match last weekend in the NCAA Tournament.
Fendrick also knows that volleyball matches aren’t decided
on a coach’s ranking ballot.
“Rankings mean squat. I don’t look at the rankings.
It shouldn’t even be a factor,” he said.
Though the Bruins rank first in the Pac-10 in assists, kills,
and service aces, and third in hitting percentage, the Tigers rank
no lower than third in the Big West in those categories.
There are several matchups to look out for. UCLA junior setter
Erika Selsor, who grew up minutes from Pacific’s campus,
matches up with Tiger senior setter Kara Gormsen, who led the Big
West with 14.12 assists per game. Selsor averaged 14.51 per
game.
Thousand Oaks native and Pacific junior outside hitter Courtney
Miller takes up the serving battle with Fendrick. The Tiger
attacker placed second in her conference with .46 service aces per
game, compared with Fendrick’s conference-best .51.
UCLA junior outside hitter Kristee Porter, who placed fifth in
the Pac-10 in digs with 3.32 per game, faces a trio of Tigers who
rank in the top ten in the Big West in that category: Gormsen,
senior middle blocker Danielle Shinn, and junior outside hitter
Jamie Hamm, who led the conference with 4.42 per game.
Bruin senior middle blocker Elisabeth Bachman, who led the
Pac-10 in blocks with 1.40 per game, faces Pacific middle blocker
Jennifer Joines, who led the Big West with 1.62 per game.
In the kills category, Porter’s conference-best 5.95 per
game compares with Pacific’s duo of Shinn and Joines, who
notched a combined total of 8.14 per game.
In overall hitting percentage, the UCLA tandem of Bachman and
Porter, who hit .357 and .307 respectively, battle the Pacific team
of Joines and sophomore middle blocker Elaine Goeders, who placed
first and third with their respective percentages of .413 and
.353.
Dunning knows the level of opposition UCLA brings to the
match.
“I think they played a really tough schedule. Their
conference is very tough. It seems like the whole Pac-10 is
good,” Dunning said.
“We know Liz Bachman and she’s been a good player
for a really long time. We know about Kristee Porter. They just
have a lot of weapons. They bring a lot of UCLA tradition with
them. We’re going to have to get better to beat the
Bruins,” he said.
It will be uphill from here for the Bruins, but Fendrick
believes the team is up to the challenge.
“Hopefully we’ll start playing better and better as
we go through the tournament,” she said.
Should the Bruins win, they will advance to Saturday’s
Mideast Regional final against the winner of the Wisconsin/Kansas
State game. The host No. 4 Wisconsin Badgers (28-3), champs of the
Big Ten Conference, have lost only once since the end of September.
All three of their losses have come to teams ranked no lower than
19 at the time of the game. The Badgers have lost only once on
their home floor.
But playing on the road inspires no fear in the Bruins.
“We’ve been on the road, we’re a good road
team,” Banachowski said. “We’ve been through it
all. I don’t think that it’s going to hamper
us.”
The No. 17 Kansas State Wildcats (20-8) upset second-round host
Pepperdine and advanced to their first Sweet 16 appearance. The
Wildcats and the Nebraska Cornhuskers are the only two teams left
from the Big 12 Conference, which sent six teams to the
tournament.
Rankings and records aside, Banachowski has great confidence in
his Bruins.
“I think we all believe that if we play our best game, we
can win it,” he said.
The Bruins can afford to make very few mistakes against the
competition they face this weekend.