Monday, March 18

UCLA women’s volleyball defeats Utah, sweeps Colorado to extend winning streak


Graduate student outside hitter/opposite Mac May rises up for a spike against Washington State on Oct. 29. May led all UCLA women's volleyball players with 27 kills against Utah on Friday and co-led with 15 kills versus Colorado on Sunday. (David Rimer/Assistant Photo editor)


Women's Volleyball


No. 13 UCLA3
No. 16 Utah2
No. 13 UCLA3
Colorado0

The Bruins polished off their intermountain road trip with a pair of victories.

No. 13 UCLA women’s volleyball (19-3, 12-2 Pac-12) defeated No. 16 Utah (16-7, 9-5) in five sets Friday in Salt Lake City and swept Colorado (14-9, 5-9) on Sunday in Boulder.

On Friday, the Bruins and Utes went back-and-forth in the first four sets. In the decisive fifth frame, Utah raced to a 4-0 lead and had two match points. Trailing 17-16, UCLA received two consecutive kills from senior outside hitter/opposite élan McCall to retake match point before a Utah attack error gifted the winning score for the blue and gold.

Graduate student outside hitter/opposite Mac May led the team with 27 kills against Utah, while redshirt sophomore middle blocker Anna Dodson had a career-best 14 kills on 24 swings. Graduate student setter Shelby Martin, ranked fourth in the Pac-12 in assists per set, had 54 assists – one assist shy of equaling her season best.

Coach Michael Sealy said Martin’s work ethic contributed toward the team’s growth.

“Shelby’s been unbelievably consistent, and she’s also not been so rigid to where she keeps growing,” Sealy said. “She keeps getting better and better at everything, and sometimes that’s hard to do when you’ve been playing the game for so long and a certain way. For her to play the game consistently at a high level for us and still find ways to keep fine-tuning what she does is really great.”

Sunday’s match concluded without extra sets as the Bruins swept the Buffaloes for the second time this season. May and sophomore outside hitter/opposite Allison Jacobs had 15 kills apiece, while Dodson chipped in with 10 kills. The Bruins also had seven service aces in three sets with five players – Martin, McCall, May, Jacobs and senior defensive specialist/libero Zoe Fleck – recording aces.

UCLA hit .398 as a team against Colorado, its third-highest hitting percentage in a match this season. Jacobs, filling in for usual starter freshman outside hitter/opposite Charitie Luper, set a career-high in kills.

“I was attacking higher than I normally do,” Jacobs said. “I was really finding the high hands of my setter – (Martin’s) location was on point today, and I couldn’t have done it without our phenomenal passing. It was a team effort really, but I found those hands pretty well.”

While Jacobs led all Bruins in the first set with nine kills, May took on more of the offensive load toward the latter stages of the match, recording seven kills in the final set. Nearly all of May’s kills in the third set came on crosscourt shots.

“They were taking crosscourt early in the match, so I saw the line open a little more,” May said. “I made sure to keep an eye out on when it would open up again because I knew if I kept going one way, they would eventually adjust to it. Once I saw that (the crosscourt) was open, I just hit it and hit it fast.”

The two wins marked the Bruins’ fifth and sixth consecutive victories and completed their season sweeps of the intermountain schools. UCLA remains in sole possession of first place in the Pac-12 with a 12-2 conference record and owns the longest current win streak out of any team in the conference.

Sports staff

Deng is currently a Sports staffer on the men's volleyball beat. He was previously a reporter on the gymnastics and women's volleyball beat and a contributor on the cross country and track & field beats.


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