Not even a Tony Danza sitcom could end more suddenly then the
UCLA women’s volleyball team’s season did Saturday
night.
Poised to upend its second top-10 opponent in two days, the No.
21 Bruins (20-14) instead collapsed like a folding chair against
No. 7 Pepperdine (25-6), as the Waves reeled off an 8-1 run late in
game four to advance to the third round of the NCAA Tournament.
“I think we tripped over our youth at that point,”
UCLA head coach Andy Banachowski said. “We had a couple of
communication errors that gave the momentum back to Pepperdine when
we looked to be in a very good situation to win that fourth
game.”
Trailing two games to one, the Bruins had Pepperdine on the
ropes in the fourth game after tallying three straight points to
take a 19-17 lead. But with momentum on their side, the Bruins
faltered at the worst possible time.
The Waves’ Katy Daly cut the lead to one with a clean
crosscourt kill, and then Pepperdine caught a break when UCLA
freshman Nancy Barba smashed an overpass into the net. Moments
later the Waves broke the deadlock after another Barba miscue led
to an easy putaway for 6-foot-2-inch middle blocker Lindsay
Hache.
After a pair of Pepperdine points sandwiched around a Katie
Wilkins service error, the Waves took control of the match for
good. Pepperdine took a 23-20 lead when Stacy Rouwenhorst buried
another UCLA overpass.
While the Bruins battled back twice to draw within two, the
damage was done; Pepperdine ultimately sealed the game and the
match.
“We could see it in their eyes that they were starting to
question themselves,” Hache said. “We stayed really
steady and stable, and just battled harder than they
did.”