Errors plagued the Bruins as they fell to the Ducks in a three-set fashion.
UCLA women’s volleyball (8-4, 0-2 Pac-12) hosted No. 6 Oregon (12-1, 2-0 Pac-12) at Pauley Pavilion on Sunday and was swept in its second game of Pac-12 play. This marks the second consecutive match in which the Bruins lost to conference foes as well as their second loss at home in as many games.
Oregon outpaced UCLA in kills, blocks, assists and digs on the night. Oregon had the leading hitters in the match, with middle blocker Karson Bacon carrying a .667 clip and setter Hannah Pukis trailing at .500.
The only category where the Bruins outnumbered their opponents was in errors. Outside/opposite hitters sophomore Grayce Olson and senior Iman Ndiaye combined for 11 alone. UCLA committed 22 errors through the three sets compared to Oregon’s 16.
Despite the Bruins yielding their third-highest error count of the season, associate head coach Jen Malcom said she is confident in the team’s capacity for ongoing improvement.
“Can we keep improving? Yes,” Malcom said. “The girls are still learning each other as we go.”
The first set featured a seesaw battle between the Bruins and the Ducks for the first seven points before a 9-0 Oregon scoring run put UCLA in a 10-point deficit it couldn’t recover from.
The Bruins could not string together scoring runs like the Ducks, tallying four consecutive points twice across the three sets.
Despite attempting to play catch-up most of the game, Malcom said the squad addressed specific areas of improvement.
“Obviously, we wanted to be in the game a little bit more,” Malcom said. “But our girls did a great job of things we told them to improve on this week: coverage, serving and defense.”
UCLA’s hitters mustered four kills in the first frame compared to its opponents’ 15. Graduate student middle blocker Desiree Becker snagged two, while Ndiaye and sophomore outside hitter Cheridyn Leverette contributed one apiece.
One of the ways UCLA acquired some points was through serving errors from Oregon’s side, forcing the ball outside, but it still surrendered to a 25-14 first-set defeat.
As the game progressed, the Bruins slipped further behind, facing increased difficulty to score more than one or two points at a time. The Ducks followed up their first-set rally with a 10-1 scoring blitz to put away the second set.
A resurgence in UCLA’s performance in the final frame proved to be too little, too late. A couple of kills by Ndiaye and redshirt senior middle blocker Anna Dodson were followed by solid blocks by Becker in the face of a No. 6-ranked opposition. But junior defensive specialist/libero Peyton Dueck said perseverance is key.
“Perseverance is super important,” Dueck said. “Especially when we are up against a big team like Oregon, where they have big hitters.”
The Bruins fell 25-18 in the final set, the closest frame of the day.
UCLA will host Utah and Colorado this week, continuing its four-game homestand before hitting the road once again.
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