Stanford d. UCLA 3-0 UCLA d.
St. Mary’s 3-0
By Andrew Borders
Daily Bruin Reporter
No one needed a swami to forecast the outcome of the three UCLA
women’s volleyball matches last weekend in Northern
California, as the Bruins predictably fell to No. 3 Stanford (23-2,
14-1 Pac-10) 3-0 and defeated unranked St. Mary’s (5-19)
3-0.
Last Friday night, the No. 12 Bruins saw the team that started
UCLA (15-7, 9-5) on its current 6-5 slide after starting the season
9-2. On Oct. 11, UCLA took the first two games against Stanford
before dropping the last three. The same would happen eight days
later against USC. That kind of collapse has not happened twice in
the same season since 1986, when the Bruins were felled the same
way against San Diego State and Loyola Marymount. Of course, such a
collapse in conference matches has much more magnitude than those
non-conference tilts 15 years ago.
None of UCLA’s last six victories have come against a
ranked team.
UCLA’s biggest accomplishment Friday night at Stanford was
merely taking the floor, as Stanford owned the match from that
point on, winning 30-23, 30-23, 30-18. The Bruins hit a pathetic
.169 hitting percentage and allowed Stanford a gargantuan .450 over
the match, including .563 in the third game.
“It was a pretty disappointing performance. I thought that
Stanford played very very well, but we didn’t respond to the
challenges that they presented tonight,” UCLA head coach Andy
Banachowski said.
As displeased as Banachowski was, Stanford head coach John
Dunning had nothing but praise for the dominant Cardinal.
“I thought we came out aggressive tonight. That was the
key. Things went really well for us. (Senior setter) Robyn Lewis
played well tonight and made good choices. (Freshman outside
hitter) Ogonna Nnamani and (junior outside hitter) Logan Tom were
hot tonight, and she went to them,” he said.
The Cardinal managed to spread the wealth at UCLA’s
expense. Nnamani hit .571, Tom .543 and junior middle blocker Tara
Conrad hit .435.
UCLA’s offense, meanwhile, could not compete. Junior
outside hitter Lauren Fendrick hit .293, while senior outside
hitter Ashley Bowles had more errors than kills, hitting -.077.
The Bruins offense was merely adequate against St. Mary’s,
hitting just .270, but UCLA held the Gaels to a mere .118 hitting
percentage. Fendrick had another big match, hitting .424 while
Bowles suffered again, managing only .129.