California only scored six points before UCLA women’s volleyball came up with 25 points in the third set.
The No. 13 Bruins (20-5, 11-4 Pac-12) dominated the Golden Bears (9-16, 3-12) in a straight-set win Thursday.
California took UCLA to four sets the last time the two teams faced off, led by junior outside hitter Christine Alftin’s 22 kills and .450 hitting percentage.
This time around, Alftin hit .044.
“She tooled us a lot last time we played them,” said coach Michael Sealy. “We knew that they abused us last time off the block so we really focused on that in practice.”
Kyra Rogers made her first start in Pac-12 play against the Bears, contributing five kills and three blocks. The sophomore outside hitter was instrumental in shutting down Afltin.
“(Rogers) blocked a ton of balls early – which really took out (Alftin) – which caused us to get a lot of easier points as they tried to avoid that match-up, so it was great,” Sealy said.
California’s lineup only hit -.016 on the match, compared to UCLA’s overall .275.
“Our block was just super strong tonight and it was really intimidating,” said freshman opposite Torrey Van Winden. “A lot of those errors from Cal came from that and from them wanting to work around our giant block.”
Beyond the block, the Bruins were also able to rely on their passing ability. Rogers said that senior libero Taylor Formico passed amazingly in her 21-dig performance.
“It was nice from a blocking standpoint to know that someone was there if I didn’t get the block,” Rogers said.
Sealy said that the Bruins’ setters were able to put the hitters in good situations because of the team’s clean digging.
UCLA plays the last game of its four-game road trip Saturday at Stanford.
