Inconsistent Bruins fail to fend off Trojan attacks
Sophomore outside hitter Bojana Todorovic and the Bruins lost to the Trojans at the Galen Center on Friday. Todorovic recorded 15 digs in the four-set loss.
USC 3
UCLA 1
By Steven Breazeale
Sept. 27, 2010 2:21 a.m.
It was the UCLA women’s volleyball team’s chance to carry over the momentum built after an impressive preseason run into conference play. Instead, No. 11 UCLA (10-2, 0-1 Pac-10) lost a hard-fought battle with cross-town rival No. 6 USC (12-0. 1-0), losing 19-25, 25-19, 16-25, 19-25 in a packed Galen Center.
The match marked the beginning of a challenging Pac-10 conference schedule for both teams. The conference is so deep with talent this year that eight of the 10 teams were ranked in the top 25 according to the American Volleyball Coaches Association Poll coming into the match.
USC took advantage of the strong play of its outside hitters in the first set. Junior Alex Jupiter led USC with six kills in the first, and freshman Falyn Fonoimoana hit three kills in the opening set. Jupiter finished with a team-high 21 kills, while Fonoimoana was second with 17.
“We scouted (Fonoimoana and Jupiter) a lot. We made changes in our offense and defense that we were going to do,” sophomore opposite Rachael Kidder said, “They’re both very strong outsides, it’s really hard to stop”.
The Trojans opened with a 4-0 run and never let go of the lead. Fonoimoana and Jupiter combined for 10 total kills and scored 10.5 points as the Trojans comfortably took the first set 25-19.
Even with the Trojans’ attack running at full speed, the Bruins stuck with their gameplan. With Kidder and junior middle blocker Katie Camp up front, UCLA put on a blocking display that rivaled the Trojan onslaught.
“That was one of the better blocking games I’ve seen our team have … ever,” Kidder said.
The Bruins seemed to figure out the tendencies of the Trojan offense and were quick to set up their own, allowing senior outside hitter Dicey McGraw to get 16 kills.
The Bruin offense started getting to McGraw more often on the outside, where she varied her attacking placement effectively and kept the women of Troy guessing.
With a comfortable lead halfway through the set, UCLA stumbled and let USC back in the game. The Trojans went on a 5-0 run to bring them close at 17-15. But big blocks from Camp kept the Trojans out of the set, and the Bruins tied it up at one set apiece, winning 25-19.
But just when the Bruins seemed to figure everything out, the comeback attempt faded away.
UCLA looked good at times early in the third and fourth sets, but was too inconsistent to stay in the game for long. Attack attempts went wide and started to build up against the Bruins.
“We gave up a lot of points that we shouldn’t have given up. There were a lot of easy plays that we let fall,” Kidder said.
The Trojans separated themselves from the Bruins for good halfway through the fourth set. With UCLA leading, USC went on another 5-0 run that tied it up at 12. The run proved to be a momentum shift too powerful for the Bruins to overcome, and USC won the fourth and final set 25-19.
The Bruins displayed how aggressive and tactical they can be in the second set of the match, but struggled during the other three sets.
“Two different teams,” coach Mike Sealy said. “We’re still trying to figure out which team we are because one of us is really good and the other is pretty average.”
