UCLA women’s volleyball makes comeback to beat Arizona

It was a situation the Bruins had found themselves in so many times this year. Having come back from a 20-15 deficit in the first set of Sunday’s match against Arizona, the UCLA women’s volleyball team was down 24-23 and facing an opposing set point. Too many times this season, UCLA (15-13, 6-12 Pac-12) had put itself in such a situation, only to fold under pressure.

But not in this match.

Two days after dropping a five-set match to Arizona State (18-12, 7-11), UCLA came back from such deficits in two sets of its three-set defeat of Arizona (19-11, 9-9).

On the crucial first set point, freshman outside hitter Claire Felix hammered home a kill to knot the score at 24. Arizona would have two more set points, but both times, UCLA was able to defuse the situation and stay alive until Wildcat errors gave the Bruins their chance to put away the match. They did not disappoint, converting after an intense back-and-forth exchange, taking the set and sending the home crowd into a wild roar.

“We felt like we could do it,” said Felix. “No one was looking to do too much; we were just staying together, keeping up, making sure we did our jobs and staying determined.”

In the second set, the Bruins once again fell behind early, at one point trailing 18-11.But the Bruins would not go away. With the score at 23-17,writer the team won six of seven points – but still faced an Arizona set point at 24-23.

With the crowd holding its breath, junior middle blocker Zoë Nightingale leapt high in the air and shattered the silence with a kill down the line to tie the set up, 24-24.Two points later,

UCLA completed its second comeback and was one set away from victory.

“I had a lot of trust in my teammates,” said senior outside hitter Kelly Reeves. “I was confident that we were going to pull out that set. Zoë Nightingale came in off the bench and brought a lot of energy to the court, and I think we did a great job of feeding off of that.”

In the third set, the Bruins managed to snuff out a late Arizona run to win 25-19, taking the match. The win erased any lingering feelings from the team’s loss to ASU two nights before. In that match, key Bruin errors coupled with the team’s inability to finish from a 13-13 tie in the fifth set doomed the team to disappointment.

Compared to that match, coach Michael Sealy said he felt that the team did a better job of maintaining a high level of play against Arizona, avoiding the ups and downs in its game that it has suffered from all year.

“There wasn’t the landslide we’ve seen in the past, where one error turns into two or three,” Sealy said. “They were better at not letting mistakes affect them tonight. There have been times where we’ve missed a serve, and just felt the air drain out of the building. Today, it was more like, ‘Okay, it’s one serve, move on.'”

The team will look to carry this forward as it takes on rival USC on Wednesday.