The atmosphere in the Galen Center was electric, the excitement of a new season palpable, as 5,385 students and fans filled the arena to watch No. 9 USC open Pac-12 Conference play against No. 8 UCLA. Sporting new white “Spike the Bruins” T-shirts, Trojan fans witnessed a less-than-electric performance from their team on Friday night.
The Bruins took only 82 minutes to dispatch their rivals, sweeping them on the road for the first time since 1993.
UCLA benefited both from outstanding defensive play and effective outside hitting, and took advantage of a number of mistakes made by USC as well.
Junior Rachael Kidder led the team with 14 kills and no errors, hitting a career-best .483 for the match on 29 attacks.
Kidder was a force on both offense and defense, and put the exclamation point on the sweep with a spike down the middle on match point that silenced the record-breaking crowd.
USC struggled throughout the night with both passing and hitting, and had trouble getting into its offense because of UCLA’s strong service game.
“We’re a great serving team; that’s one of our strengths for sure. It has a big impact because it puts a lot of other teams in out-of-system plays when they can’t pass well,” Kidder said.
“As long as we’re doing what we’re supposed to do and taking away the spots we’re supposed to take, we usually block a lot of balls and take away the right parts of the court.”
When asked if his team executed its game plan after Friday’s match, coach Mike Sealy said, “Pretty flawlessly.”
“It was a perfect storm. We did nothing wrong, and ‘SC had an off night,” Sealy said.
The Trojans’ repeated attack and service errors hampered their offense and made it difficult for them to develop any momentum.
They registered 22 hitting errors and nine service errors to just one service ace.
Sealy attested to the team’s exceptional defense, citing the importance of both the initial block and the defense around it.
“We’ve been a good block defense team all year, we’re good at keeping our opponents at a low percentage,” Sealy said.
“We’ve blocked a lot of balls, but we also play good defense around the block, so I think, between the block and the defense, it’s pretty hard to put a ball down.”
Sophomore Kelly Reeves added six kills and 11 digs, and senior Lauren van Orden racked up 32 assists, six digs and four kills.
“When we’re playing well, we’re passing well and serving well,” Van Orden said.
“We’ve been a little weak on our attack percentage so far, but that picked up tonight.”
“The main thing we need to work on is being the same team every night, instead of having a really good night and a really off night,” Kidder said, referring to the volleyball team’s only loss, a five-set decision against Pepperdine last week.
UCLA improves to 7-1 with the win, and will open up the home schedule against Cal State Northridge today at 7 p.m. at the John Wooden Center.
“(Coach Sealy) said (the win) proves we’re a good team, and I think we have to prove that more consistently,” Van Orden said.