ANGIE LEVINE Freshman middle blocker Brynn
Murphy goes up for a swing as senior setter Erika
Selsor (right) looks on.
By Diamond Leung
Daily Bruin Senior Staff
The UCLA women’s volleyball team is struggling while
senior All-American outside hitter Kristee Porter remains
ineligible. The No. 11 Bruins, who are being swept by good teams,
are barely beating mediocre teams.
And now, they have three more matches to play in a week. The
Bruins (13-6, 8-4 Pac-10) head north to play Cal on Thursday, No. 3
Stanford on Friday and St. Mary’s on Sunday.
“We just have to forget about the past and move
forward,” freshman middle blocker Heather Cullen said.
“We can’t just go in thinking, “˜Oh, we
don’t have Kristee.'”
Oh, but does losing Porter ever hurt. The Bruins have dropped to
fourth place in the Pac-10. Now they must get through these
opponents with at least two wins in order to gain a high seed in
the NCAA Tournament.
Cal (8-13, 3-10) has never beaten UCLA in 39 tries.
Check.
“We want to get the Cal win under our belts and then spend
time getting ready for Stanford,” UCLA head coach Andy
Banachowski said.
St. Mary’s (3-19) has never lost to UCLA, but that’s
only because the two schools have never met. The Gaels are winless
in their conference.
Check.
“A win doesn’t mean anything because we’re
ranked above them,” Banachowski said.
Stanford, well, that’s the team that poses more of a
problem for the Bruins.
The Cardinal (21-2, 12-1) came from behind Oct. 11 at Pauley
Pavilion to stun the Bruins in five games. Stanford All-American
outside hitter Logan Tom could not be stopped. The Bruins had
Porter to counter Tom then.
Now they don’t.
“Losing Kristee has obviously affected us,” senior
outside hitter Ashley Bowles said. “It took a huge variable
out of our offense and out of our team.”
UCLA will also to deal with the flu bug during the grueling road
trip. Junior middle blocker Angela Eckmier and freshman middle
blocker Brynn Murphy have been under the weather this past
week.
“We’re going to work on having chemistry out on the
court,” Bowles said. “Hopefully things will get
better.”
Check?