Women’s volleyball hopes to sweep USC again at Galen Center
By Farzad Mashhood
Nov. 5, 2009 10:11 p.m.
Tonight’s UCLA women’s volleyball match at USC presents an interesting challenge. Despite UCLA’s five-match winning streak, the odds do not seem to favor the Bruins.
The Bruins have never won in the Trojans’ new arena.
“It’s definitely hard to win in the Galen Center,” junior outside hitter Dicey McGraw said.
USC’s home of the past three seasons has been a friendly site for the Trojans. They are 9-1 at home this season with their only loss coming at the hands of then-No. 11 Stanford.
However, for McGraw and the No. 7 Bruins (18-6, 8-3 Pac-10), their focus is clear against No. 17 USC (15-8, 4-7) tonight.
“I think we can do it. I think this is one of the strongest teams we’ve had in a while, and our chemistry is awesome,” McGraw said. “If we focus on our side of the net, their crowd can’t stop us.”
Riding an impressive winning streak, including Saturday’s road upset of Stanford, the Bruins will have to put aside the memories of that weekend and their run of victories as a whole.
“We’ve had a good streak so far definitely, but we definitely need to focus on ‘SC,” McGraw said. “They’re always excited to play us. They always bring their best game so we definitely need to be on the top of our game.”
USC has lost six of their last eight matches, but for sophomore middle blocker Sara Sage, the Trojans’ recent skid will not affect UCLA’s preparations. And with their Oct. 9 sweep at the hands of the Bruins still on their mind, the Trojans are likely to be playing with extra fire.
“‘SC is ‘SC. You want to be as prepared as possible, so we’re not going to overlook them,” she said.
Sitting at third place in the Pac-10 with a comfortable two-match lead over fourth-place California, the Bruins are still building a case for a high seeding in the NCAA Tournament. McGraw said a second win over the Trojans will be a “huge confidence boost.” Coach Andy Banachowski agreed that his young team needs all the big wins it can get.
“I think we’re playing with a little bit more confidence which is certainly good for us, being a young team,” he said.
The difficulties of playing on the road, Banachowski added, were prevalent for the Bruins. Before its pair of road wins last weekend, UCLA had fallen against unranked opponents on the road, such as Arizona State, Long Beach State and Cal State Fullerton.
“Up until this weekend I thought home-court advantage played a big part in the outcomes of matches,” said Banachowski about last week’s Bay Area wins. “We were able to turn it around this week, and we have got to be able to do it again.”
