Same teams.
Same place.
Same result.
UCLA women’s volleyball (2-1) fell to No. 3 Kentucky (4-1) in straight sets Wednesday night in the All State Big Ten/SEC Challenge at Historic Memorial Coliseum in Lexington, Kentucky. The loss looked familiar for the Bruins: nearly nine months ago, the Wildcats knocked them out of the NCAA tournament in a 3-1 defeat.
While UCLA entered on a hot streak, having begun the season with two wins over Long Beach State, the Westwood bunch came out of the gate cold, dropping the first set 25-13.
“We need to be a little bit more mentally checked in early in the match,” said coach Matt Werle. “We saw a lot of things happen tonight in the first set that I haven’t seen happen in our gym since we started in early August. … I don’t feel like we handled our serve-receive very well tonight, and especially in that first set.”
UCLA Athletics did not provide media availability with the team’s players.
A 7-2 deficit to start the game created a hole that was ultimately too deep to climb out.
A double block from fifth-year middle blocker Marianna Singletary and sophomore outside hitter Eliana Urzua halted the Wildcats’ run, opening the door for sophomore outside hitter Ava Utterback to nab three straight kills and bring the Bruins within two points.
But it was not enough.
Kentucky quickly put heavy service pressure on the UCLA backline, going on an 8-0 scoring run en route to taking the first set, including three aces.
The second set seemed poised to follow the same trend, with the Wildcats jumping out to a 5-1 lead. But a kill from Singletary and strong hands at the net tied the set 6-6, keeping the teams even for a few more points.
Utterback tacked on another three kills as the battle continued. The Plainfield, Indiana, local finished the night leading the team with a .333 hitting percentage for nine kills.
Ultimately, Kentucky managed to regain its stride, pulling ahead by five points. While UCLA brought the deficit to three after a timeout called by Werle, Kentucky took the second set 25-18.
Having dropped the opening two sets, the Bruins rallied to continue fighting back.
Senior outside hitter Maggie Li found her stride with a pair of kills to kick off the third set – finishing the match with five. An Utterback ace pulled the score to 7-7, which was followed up by another block from Singletary – totaling five on the night.
Sophomore right-side hitter Mija Bendziute stepped up late in the game, claiming another UCLA ace to retake the lead 13-12. Bendziute racked up six kills in the third set, helping continue a back-and-forth battle between the two teams and bringing her match total up to nine on a .250 clip.
Singletary recorded her final block of the match to keep it deadlocked at 22 apiece, but the Wildcats closed out the set 25-23 to take the game in three.
The Bruins will have the opportunity to strike very soon,as they continue their long road trip in a faceoff against Miami on Sept. 4. They will play on back-to-back days against the Hurricanes, who are 0-2 having lost to both Michigan and Michigan State.
“We made it very easy on Kentucky tonight by allowing them to have their way with us offensively,” Werle said. “We were taking the hits early, and then we had to continue to try to crawl back out of that place. We just need to go punch, and we need to be aggressive.”
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