Women’s volleyball goes down to USC in five-setter
Freshman outside hitter Mac May impressed Wednesday night against conference rival USC. She finished in the top 3 in kills, aces and blocks with 13, three and four, respectively. (Amy Dixon/Assistant Photo editor)
By Ryan Smith
Sept. 21, 2017 5:13 p.m.
The Pac-12 opener was nothing short of a disappointment for the Bruins, but the expectations remain the same.
No. 11 UCLA (7-3, 0-1 Pac-12) women’s volleyball hosted cross-town rival No. 21 USC (9-3, 1-0) in the first conference matchup of the season Wednesday night.
The Trojans came out as the aggressors and managed to steal the first set by a score of 25-21. Senior opposite hitter Brittany Abercrombie led the charge for the Trojans, posting four kills and a .444 hitting percentage in the opening frame.
Abercrombie finished the night with 18 total kills and a .425 hitting percentage.
The Bruins responded with a commanding second set, winning 25-15. Coach Michael Sealy said the team was focused on controlling the pass and serve game.
“You talk about it in volleyball all the time,” Sealy said. “Whoever wins the serve-pass battles is going to win and it was glaring tonight whichever team served tougher and passed better was going to win pretty easily.”
UCLA continued to have success and jumped out to a 2-1 lead in the set count, but USC flipped the script in sets four and five and completed the road upset.
Junior middle blocker Kyra Rogers said that she felt the team got away from what was working in the earlier frames.
“We just tried to be really aggressive, but they are a great team and they made a lot of changes too,” Rogers said. “A lot of the tips were falling early and they definitely picked those up at the end, but I think the main part we talked about was serving, passing.”
One positive note to the Bruins’ night was the standout play from freshman Mac May. The pin hitter finished with 13 kills and was the spark plug during the second and third sets.
However, she said the team was too tentative in sets one, four and five.
“We definitely need to be more aggressive and work harder to stay in control of the game, instead of letting things happen to us,” May said. “Be aggressive and control what we can control and keep playing hard.”
May and fellow freshman pin hitter Jenny Mosser had 13 and 14 kills respectively for a Bruins team that has undergone a major facelift this season. Despite their individual successes on the court, the loss raised questions about the team’s expectations moving forward.
Sealy was quick to point out that the expectation has and always will be the same – winning.
“We knew that we lost a lot of players from last year, but had some talented kids coming in,” Sealy said. “It’s the same old, same old every year. It’s nothing new. It’s the only expectation – we work as hard as we can and for this team to be as good as this team can be.”
UCLA will look to bounce back Friday night against No. 8 Oregon (8-1, 1-0 Pac-12) at the John Wooden Center.
