UCLA women’s volleyball beats Cal with balanced offense, defense
Jennie Frager tied for the team lead in hitting percentage with a .526 mark. The senior middle blocker also led the team with six blocks. (Jintak Han/Assistant Photo editor)
By Kelsey Angus
Oct. 23, 2016 5:19 p.m.
At the halfway point in the Pac-12 season, UCLA took down both of the conference’s Northern California schools.
“This weekend was huge for us,” said senior middle blocker Jennie Frager. “After Oregon I think we gained our confidence back and we were starting to get in a rhythm, and this weekend was good for us just to prove that we can do that perpetually and keep it going.”
[Related: Women’s volleyball defeats Oregon Ducks in five-set nailbiter]
No. 15 UCLA (16-4, 7-3 Pac-12) women’s volleyball beat California (8-12, 2-8) in four sets Sunday for its fourth consecutive conference win.
The two teams tied 14 different times in the first set with six lead changes. The Bruins were able to come out on top 26-24 primarily due to hitting .325 as opposed to .262 from Cal.
UCLA continued to hit better than California in set two – both in hitting percentage and total kills – but the Bears took the set 25-22. Coach Michael Sealy said that he attributes the loss to the 13 errors in that set alone.
“We were just sloppy,” Sealy said. “Out of their 25 points, 13 of them were things that we did. (Assistant coach Tony Ker) talks to them statwise all the time. If you give up that many points, it just makes it too hard.”
The team talked about not making as many errors at the intermission, said redshirt junior setter Ryann Chandler. In set three, UCLA had zero errors on 15 kills to hit .652, with Frager and senior middle blocker Claire Felix both hitting 1.000.
“I think we just changed our mentality and worked on just making sure we did all of the little things and doing the more boring vanilla plays to open the floodgates for the big fun plays,” Frager said.
The Bruins never trailed in set three and won 25-15.
Sealy said he changed UCLA’s starting rotation before set three in an effort to better defend Cal’s star outside hitter, junior Christine Alftin.
“In the first part (sophomore opposite/outside hitter Zana Muno) was against (Alftin) and she was lighting her up, so if we started somewhere else then (freshman opposite/outside hitter Torrey Van Winden) gets her place,” Sealy said. “Torrey’s a bit bigger so you want to put a bigger block in front of her.”
UCLA cruised to a 25-17 victory in set four, taking the match on a solo block from senior outside hitter Jordan Anderson and a dual block by Felix and Van Winden.
Bruin hitters consistently had one-on-one hitting opportunities throughout the set, which contributed to the team’s overall hitting percentage of .383.
“I had a really easy day getting my feet there and being able to run my options,” Chandler said. “I think that our middles did a phenomenal job being up so they held the middle blocker, so our pins had great opportunities one-on-one.”
Similar to offense, defense was also strong for the Bruins, who tallied 12 blocks as a team.
“We had plans for certain hitters, their tendencies, what type of shots they like to hit,” Chandler said. “I think our blockers were really engaged and that’s why they got a lot of blocks.”
The Bruins’ four-game homestand continues with matches against unranked Colorado and No. 20 Utah in the following weekends.
