Women’s volleyball recovers from early deficit to trounce Michigan

Sometimes Claire Felix is okay not getting the ball. Saturday night was not one of those times.

With her team down 2-0 to Michigan in the second round of the NCAA Tournament, the junior middle blocker adopted a new mentality: “You know what, set me the ball, I’m going to put it away,” she said.

“I wanted the ball, and if I pull two blockers and someone else gets a kill, that’s like me getting a kill,” Felix said. “I don’t know, I wanted to win and I didn’t want our seniors to finish their last home game in Wooden at UCLA losing.”

She made sure they didn’t, posting 17 kills on a dominant .500 hitting percentage and adding a match-leading seven blocks as UCLA pulled off the stunning comeback to win in five sets.

After the first two sets, the Bruins headed for an early exit from the tournament. Never before in coach Michael Sealy’s six seasons and 194 matches as the UCLA head coach had his team rallied back from a 2-0 deficit to win.

But the team used the intermission after the second set to help reset mentally.

“There was a lot of disappointment going into the locker room,” Felix said. “We kind of sat there for a minute in dead silence. Then people just kind of started talking and little by little, trying to fire each other up, bringing people back into the group.”

Sealy stresses the importance of “winning ugly,” and it was clear UCLA would need to do just that.

The first two sets were not pretty – even though they were within a couple plays of winning each set, the Bruins looked nothing like themselves.

“I think the two things we could rely on all year (were) ball control and emotional regulation and that’s the two things we didn’t have in the beginning of the match,” Sealy said. “They won the serve-and-pass battle, I thought our ball control struggled. And even for how poorly we played, usually we’re fine with it and we still battle. But everybody was just emotionally shut down.”

That changed in the third set, largely thanks to Felix, who took over the match with a fiery performance the rest of the way – she notched seven kills on eight attempts in the third set as UCLA won 25-22 to extend the match.

The Bruins also leaned on freshman setter Zana Muno, who Sealy inserted for redshirt sophomore starter Ryann Chandler midway through the second set. Chandler was making her first start in over two months since she sustained an injury in late October and although she was setting the ball well, Sealy decided to put in Muno, who had provided consistent double-double performances throughout Chandler’s absence.

“Ryann mentally was setting the game plan really, really well, it’s just we weren’t clicking,” Sealy said. “The old adage in volleyball is if someone’s playing bad, pull them. If everyone’s playing bad, pull the setter – because it’s the one position that can kind of affect everybody.”

Muno posted 35 assists and helped the Bruins get back in system against the Wolverines, whose tough serving and powerful attacking posed a difficult challenge early on.

“We weren’t passing great so we were causing everyone to run around,” Sealy said. “And Zana’s probably the quickest or fastest girl in the country running. So she can just run down anything, nothing’s going to fall in.”

On top of that, Muno’s advantage in size and athleticism over Chandler helped the Bruins deal with Michigan’s Caroline Knop, who torched the Bruins with 11 kills on a .385 hitting percentage in the first two sets but was held to a .000 mark the rest of the way.

“Zana’s by no means a gigantic block but she’s going to be a little bit bigger than Ryann,” Sealy said. “(Knop) was matched up on Ryann and Ryann’s not known for blocking, she’s there to run offense and set. … We were so worried about (Knop) hitting line that we were over-exaggerating going line and then she just blasted seam.”

The Bruins also locked down Michigan star middle blocker Abby Cole, the team’s kills leader and only All-Big Ten selection. Cole ended up with just 11 kills on a .089 hitting percentage.

“She’s great, she’s big and physical, I think I’m surprised that her stat line says that,” Sealy said. “She’s a big, big hitter that’s matched up on a smaller left-side blocker, obviously we’re not going to stop her with a block alone, I think our defense did a good job of just scooping balls.”

That task fell to senior defensive specialists Rachel Inouye and Karly Drolson and junior libero Taylor Formico, all of whom posted double-digit digs. Redshirt sophomore outside hitter Jessyka Ngauamo also stepped up, playing almost the entire match and contributing an all-around game with 17 kills and 13 digs.

As the Bruins head to Austin to face the No. 3 Texas Longhorns in the Sweet Sixteen on Friday night, they’ll be prepared to once again “win ugly” if they have to.

“If we’re down 2-0 in the tournament, now we know we can come back from it,” Muno said. “It was obviously not the prettiest game we’ve ever played and the cleanest. But we just stuck it out – we knew that we’ve been winning ugly all year.”