As losses mount, UCLA women’s volleyball goes back to basics
Redshirt freshman outside hitter Haley Lawless said the Bruins’ recent losing streak can be attributed to a few minor mistakes.
By Jordan Lee
Oct. 10, 2013 12:42 a.m.
Freshman middle blocker Claire Felix took the set pass and sent it hurtling across the court for the kill, much to the delight of half her teammates. During what UCLA women’s volleyball coach Mike Sealy called the team’s best practice of the year, the team exchanged words, praise and points in an inter-squad scrimmage that featured the loose play the Bruins hope will translate to game day.
Despite its last win coming three weeks ago, UCLA appeared relaxed during its practice session, due in part to a renewed focus on the basics.
“We are almost maybe trying to abandon the really technical stuff and just get back to the basics like block balls, hit what’s open, dig what we know,” said sophomore outside hitter Maddy Klineman. “Today we did a test where it was how fast can you get off the net and get back on, and everyone was crazy fast, so we’re trying to abandon the really minute technical things and break it down, because everyone knows what to do.”
UCLA has dropped four matches in a row to start Pac-12 play, its longest losing streak since 2007, when the team dropped three straight. The Bruins believe that a return to the mindset they started the year with, en route to a 9-1 record in their first 10 matches, will yield a similar return to the win column.
“We are just revisiting what we started preseason on and kind of got away from because it was so busy with playing matches, just being in a great athletic position and having a quiet mind and just making plays,” Sealy said. “We are going to focus on our side of the net, we know we are a great team, we know we play at a very high level and we’re just focusing on playing at that level.”
UCLA has won just three sets in its last four matches, but has lost a combined six sets by three points or fewer, with four of the sets going into overtime.
In falling by that small of a margin, the Bruins realize just how little room for error they have in what redshirt freshman outside hitter Haley Lawless described as a “game of inches,” in which something as minute as the placement of a finger can have enormous consequences on the match.
“It all comes down to really small plays and the fine details. It’s one ball that you don’t get your hip fully around or it’s one hand that hits one finger instead of two,” Lawless said. “We know that we are good enough to come out of this little bump in the road. It’s just a couple of missed plays, we are all super engaged in practices and know that we are just on the border of being something great.”
UCLA will see if its refocused approach means a return to winning this weekend as it heads north to battle both Oregon Pac-12 schools.
