ELI GILL Senior outside hitter Ashley Bowles
smacks one down in Friday’s match. USC 3 UCLA
2
By Christina Teller
Daily Bruin Senior Staff
A rivalry brings the best out in a team.
The No. 5 UCLA women’s volleyball team entered
Friday’s match with an additional incentive; they would face
their rivals without the conference-leader in kills, senior outside
hitter Kristee Porter, who was declared ineligible by UCLA pending
an NCAA ruling.
And the Bruins almost won without her.
UCLA (10-4, 5-3 Pac-10) took the first two games out from under
the visiting USC Trojans (13-1, 8-0) but as the match wore on,
their energy level wore down and the Trojans took home their 13th
win of the season 25-30, 28-30, 30-21, 30-22, 15-11.
“We got ourselves in a really great situation, and we
weren’t able to capitalize on it,” UCLA head coach Andy
Banachowski said. “I think we lost our momentum with the
break, and ‘SC regrouped and they played better and we wore
down.”
When teams face UCLA, they know that Porter is the Bruins’
go-to hitter, and USC head coach Mick Haley noted that without
Porter on the court, the Trojans were thrown off a bit.
“We expected the match of our life. We just expected
Porter to go off on us with about 50 kills,” Haley said.
“I thought it was a combination of us looking for Porter more
than looking for the Bruins.”
And the Bruins took full advantage of the fact in the first two
games.
Without Porter on the court, the hitting burden fell even more
so on the shoulders of senior Ashley Bowles and junior Lauren
Fendrick. The two combined for almost 60 percent of the
team’s total kills, with 21 and 20 respectively.
Freshman Heather Cullen got her debut in place of Porter,
providing the Bruins with another viable offensive option and
finishing with 10 kills.
Games one and two featured a hard-hitting Bruin team that
capitalized on USC’s errors. USC gave up 13 points to the
Bruins in the first two games from service errors, compared to the
four that UCLA committed.
The Bruins’ passing in games one and two also allowed UCLA
to run a quick offense, which kept USC off-balance and unable to
establish their usual offensive rhythm.
“I’d like to say I didn’t think we played so
great,” Haley said. “But I almost think part of it was
how well UCLA played in games one and two.”
USC started chipping away at UCLA’s momentum in game two,
working its way around the Bruin block with soft kills to stay
within two points the entire game, as the Trojan’s hitting
percentage jumped from .111 in game one to .409 in game two.
Game three saw the Trojan’s come-back continue to gain
steam, with USC’s lead ranging anywhere from seven to 11
points.
And when Trojan sophomore outside hitter April Ross served for
seven straight service points early on, it was clear that momentum
was going to stay on the Trojan side of the net for the remainder
of the match.
And after it was all over, the Bruins were still proud.
UCLA was missing a big piece of its puzzle on Friday, and
despite that fact, the Bruins gave the No. 3 team in the nation a
run for its money.
“If you added Kristee to what we did tonight ““ we
would feel pretty good about ourselves,” senior setter Erika
Selsor said.
Beyond the fact that Friday’s match ended in a loss and
UCLA is without their star player indefinitely, the Bruins got the
opportunity to see what their team is made of.