The No. 10 Bruins (5-1) saw their unbeaten start to the season come to an abrupt end, losing 3-0 to an aggressive No. 9 Hawai’i team (5-1) Saturday night at the Hawaiian Airlines Wahine Volleyball Classic.
After opening the tournament with victories over Santa Clara (3-3) and New Mexico State (1-5), the team could not overcome Hawai’i’s speedy offensive attack in the tournament championship game and took second place.
Before the game, coach Michael Sealy spoke about Hawai’i’s strong transitional offense and quickness as big factors UCLA would have to overcome.
“Hawai’i is a great team, super consistent, and (you know) they’re going to get a legitimate swing every time,” he said.
Hawai’i’s strengths were certainly on exhibit in the game, as the Rainbow Wahine surged behind senior outside hitter Emily Hartong’s 15 kills and senior setter Mita Uiato’s 33 assists. All three sets of the match followed a similar structure, as UCLA and Hawai’i fought tooth and nail for the set’s first 35 points, only for Hawai’i to go on a late surge and win the set by a comfortable margin.
UCLA hit just .169, a dip from the team’s generally strong offensive performances. Though the Bruins played effectively at times, they faltered at others, making key mistakes late in each set that allowed their opponent to pull away. UCLA could not sustain the momentum it had gained in the first two matches of the tournament, in which it played strong, efficient volleyball.
The first match, in which the team beat Santa Clara 3-1, saw UCLA pressed by Santa Clara late in the game. Trailing 2-0, the Broncos took the third set 25-21 and surged back to press the Bruins to two set points in the fourth, which the Bruins won 27-25.
“I think it was a lack of focus on our side that let (Santa Clara) back in the game,” said junior setter Megan Moenoa, “That was the biggest thing we talked about before the next game, trying to stay focused for a longer amount of time.”
The talk seemed to work, as the team dispatched New Mexico State 3-0 without much difficulty.
Heading into next week, the Bruins will look to return to this level of performance, and more practice time playing together should help the team overcome this setback as it enters the second half of its nonconference schedule. Junior outside hitter Karsta Lowe said the team sees bumps in the road as part of a growing process.
“(Coach) Sealy, he talks about how we have to fail, and come back, and that’s how we’re going to build our resiliency,” Lowe said.
UCLA next plays Denver on Thursday in the Denver Invitational.
