Season ends early with a home loss to Baylor
Kaitlin Sather played her last UCLA match in Saturday’s loss to Baylor.
By Farzad Mashhood
Dec. 6, 2009 11:06 p.m.
There was something spooky in the 44-year-old Pauley Pavilion on Saturday night.
In only their third loss at home this season, the Bruins took an early bow out of the NCAA Tournament on Saturday night in just the second round, suffering a disappointing four-set defeat to Baylor.
But for UCLA’s Kaitlin Sather, it was not just a case of getting beat.
“I think a lot of things were going in their favor,” the redshirt senior opposite said.
“They were making crazy plays. As my dad says, the volleyball gods were in their favor, and they just weren’t in ours. The same swing normally goes down, and we’re just getting nothing. … Crazy things were happening.”
The Bruins were off their game in hitting, serving and digging, though the Bears dominated in each of those categories.
And from the start, the Bears had the Bruins’ number, taking the first two sets, 25-23 and 25-22, falling 29-31 in the third, then cruising to a 25-19 win in the third set and their first ever second-round win in the tournament.
Coach Andy Banachowski noted that the Baylor offense was unlike anything they have seen this season, relying on powerful outside hitters rather than a strong quick attack from the middles.
Baylor’s senior outside hitter Katie Sanders led Baylor with 13 kills, adding 12 digs.
“I think that they had maybe a little bit more experience out there with their hitters,” Banachowski said. “They were pretty impressive, and they made good shots. They certainly kept us off balance all night.
“I told our kids today that this is a powerful hitting team, that they don’t rely on their quickness but they rely on their power out there and that certainly overwhelmed us tonight.”
For sophomore middle blocker Amanda Gil, who had match highs of 15 kills and 6.5 total blocks, UCLA underestimated its opponents.
“We didn’t show up, we took it lightly and thought it was an easy way to go to … Gainesville,” she said. “But we just started too late and played catch-up the whole game.”
From the opening set, UCLA was out of rhythm. The Bruins smacked four service errors with no aces while Baylor blazed three aces past UCLA’s back row. Aside from Gil’s seven kills in the first set, no UCLA player had more than two kills.
UCLA’s serving woes continued throughout the match. The Bruins, who average 1.3 errors and 1.0 aces per set, hit 11 errors and no aces in all four sets.
“Certainly our serving let us down,” Banachowski said. “And I think the service errors really shook our confidence.”
Throughout the match, Baylor shut down any UCLA attempts at building a run and holding a lead.
“I think all night that we would be doing OK, and then we would make an error that would just play with us and let things slip away from us,” Banachowski said. “A good example is in the second game where we were leading 5-1 and they called timeout, and before we know it, it’s 7-5, their favor.”
The Bruins built some momentum in the third set, extending it to six deuce points. Gil said the Bruins made some adjustments during the intermission to counter Baylor’s strong outside hitters. Freshman outside hitter Rachael Kidder played considerable time in the front row to aid the UCLA block. Kidder had three block assists in the third set.
“Putting in Rachael was a big adjustment, having a bigger block out there to block the outsides and just being aggressive with our serving,” Gil said. “We kind of calmed it down a bit, got our nerves out of the way, and it started to look good the third and fourth games.”
Despite UCLA’s resurgence in the third set, Baylor breezed to an easy fourth-set win, hitting .438 and keeping the UCLA attack to a mere .186 clip.
Banachowski added that the Bruins expected to feel more comfortable playing at home against an unseeded opponent.
“When we started making errors, we became tentative, and it carried over not only in our serving but into our overall play,” he said.
SATHER CLOSES OUT CAREER: The fifth-year senior who sat out last year with a shoulder injury ended her career Saturday night.
Sather finished her career with 1,501 kills and 1,153 digs.
“All I want to say today is that it’s been an honor being a part of UCLA Athletics, and I really want to thank my team for the opportunity to play with them,” Sather said after the match, holding back tears. “I’m really proud of what we’ve put together this year.”
Sather said she is undecided on her future plans but that professional volleyball, graduate school and working are all still options.
