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After stunning win, two reality checks

By Eli Smukler

Sept. 24, 2009 1:12 a.m.

The thrill of notching a big win on the road can do wonders for a team’s morale. But converting ambition into success can lead to a false sense of invincibility, which is why that kind of contentment can have noxious effects on a locker room.

For the No. 14 UCLA women’s volleyball team, the consequences of its self-assurance were a disastrous weekend to close out its non-conference season and a subsequent seven-place plunge in the national rankings.

“We were feeling pretty good about ourselves,” coach Andy Banachowski said. “We went out and bought new tires for our car, but we forgot to put the lug nuts on.”

“The wheels really fell off when we were at Fullerton.”

After stunning then-No. 5 Nebraska before 13,870 spectators ““ the largest regular-season crowd in collegiate volleyball history ““ a win that broke the Cornhuskers 90-match home winning streak ““ the Bruins were in a daze.

“After coming off a big win, obviously you get a little cocky,” sophomore libero Lainey Gera said. “I think we didn’t really focus in our practice because we were so high on the win.”

Five days later, in front of a modest audience of 535 and just 30 miles from home on the campus of Cal State Fullerton, UCLA blew a match point in a five-set loss to the host Titans and then got swept by previously unranked Long Beach State the following night.

With just three upperclassmen in its regular rotation, some mental lapses are to be expected from such a young team, but Banachowski was still surprised at this result.

“I had anticipated that we would struggle at times this year,” he said. “I didn’t anticipate that we would struggle like we did that particular weekend. Watching tape afterward, we would make a mistake and compound the mistake instead of correct it.”

For Fullerton, the win was its first against a ranked opponent in the program’s history. For UCLA, it was not how it wanted to finish the season’s first month, with conference play at the doorstep.

“It was definitely a reality check,” Gera said.

“Everyone has been working hard the last two or three practices and we’re just trying to get back into our style of play so that we can start Pac-10’s off right.”

UCLA (10-3) will be forced to test that mentality this weekend as it travels to Arizona State (10-2) on Friday night and then to No. 19 Arizona (11-0) on Saturday.

The Bruins hold dominating series leads over both the Sun Devils and Wildcats in recent years, but, given its recent collapse against underrated opponents, the team is trying to abandon those pregame expectations and come in with an objective attitude.

“We’re not going to play like we did last weekend,” sophomore middle blocker Katie Camp said. “We’re a better team than that and we know it, so we’ll come out firing.”

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