Women’s volleyball switches hitters, stifles LMU
Junior middle blocker Kyra Rogers led UCLA with 14 kills and a .440 hitting percentage. After hitting .121 in the second set, the Bruins rebounded to a .255 on the match. (Aubrey Yeo/Daily Bruin senior staff)
By David Gottlieb
Sept. 18, 2017 8:06 p.m.
After the Bruins suffered their first two losses of the season, coach Michael Sealy decided it was time for a change.
It worked.
No. 13 UCLA (6-2) women’s volleyball switched around two of its pin hitters in a straight-sets victory over Loyola Marymount (5-4). Freshmen Mac May and Jenny Mosser had been hitting at the outside and opposite spots, respectively, but the two flip-flopped Wednesday.
Looking at the numbers from early in the season was enough to get Sealy to make the change.
“We have enough data to show us what they’re capable of,” Sealy said. “(May’s) very, very good on the right. She’s good on the left, too, but her numbers on the right are far superior to her numbers on the left. And (Mosser’s) numbers are good on the left.”
Mosser posted 11 kills – tied for the team lead – and hit .421 in her first game swinging from the left side. May came up with six kills and a .333 hitting percentage.
The new system caused Sealy to use just seven players throughout the match, as the coach said he wanted to make sure his players were comfortable with the new system. Sealy said he would have liked to get recently activated freshman outside hitter Alexis Light in the game, and he hopes to do so in the team’s next game
A lion’s share
A game against the LMU meant an opportunity for Sarah Sponcil to play against her old team. The senior setter had previously spent three years as a Lion.
“I was actually very nervous going in,” Sponcil said. ” I didn’t want to be like, ‘Oh, I know everything,’ because I didn’t. They definitely showed me different things that I haven’t seen in the past year, so they did a good job.”
The setter logged 33 assists and and 13 digs in the match, in which the team rebounded from its first two defeats of the season. Both the recent losses and Sponcil’s matchup against her former team served as motivation in the victory, per Mosser.
“I think we’re all really fired up after losing,” Mosser said. “We were really focused in practice and we knew what we wanted to do and also playing for Sarah, too. We wanted to do well for her.”
Up next
The Bruins will continue pre-conference play with a road match against unranked Long Beach State on Friday. Pac-12 play will get going Wednesday against rival No. 18 University of Southern California in Pauley Pavilion.
