Women’s volleyball defeats Washington State, clinches another upset victory

The Bruins pulled off the upset once again.

UCLA women’s volleyball (8-4, 3-0 Pac-12) upset No. 24 Washington State (12-3, 1-2) on Friday night in a sweep. This marked the Bruins’ second upset over a ranked Pac-12 team in the last two weeks.

“Washington State is a good team, and being able to (sweep them) is really cool and a good confidence boost,” said junior outside hitter Jenny Mosser. “And, it kind of shows everyone else in the conference, ‘Hey, we’re for real.’”

The win also marks the first time since 2007 that UCLA has opened conference play 3-0, and the Bruins now sit at the top of the Pac-12 standings as the last undefeated team.

The Cougars got off to a hot start in the first set, taking a 5-1 lead. But Mosser responded and recorded three straight kills to bring the Bruins within a point. And two points later, two more kills in a row from Mosser put UCLA ahead 7-6.

“Honestly, I was just like, ‘You know what, might as well go up and be aggressive, because we’ve got to bring that to Washington State,’” Mosser said.

Washington State kept the set close for a time, not letting UCLA build more than a two-point lead, and reclaimed the lead at 16-15. But it was another kill from Mosser that immediately tied the set back up, followed by another four straight points to give the Bruins a 20-16 advantage. UCLA held on to that lead to finish the set 25-20.

Mosser recorded a total of seven kills and a service ace in the first set, and finished the match with 14 kills, a season-high.

“It’s always nice when you win the first one and just like, establish your presence, and then keep on going and use the momentum from that one,” Mosser said. “It’s super important, even when we started that (set) down, coming back and showing that, ‘Hey, we’re not just going to roll over and give up, we’re still here,’ because we’ve done that in the past, and just showing Washington State that it’s not going to be easy.”

It was the Bruins who got off to a quick start in the second set, as they jumped out to an 8-2 lead. The Cougars were able to close that lead to just three points at 11-8, but were unable to get any closer than that.

UCLA slowly built up its advantage again and finished off the set with three-straight points, winning the set 25-17 on a block by Mosser and redshirt sophomore middle blocker Emily Ryan.

The third set started off similarly, as the Bruins scored the first six points and nine of the first 10 to take a lead they wouldn’t relinquish. Washington State was never able to close the gap to fewer than six points, and on the second match point for UCLA, the Cougars made a ball handling error to end the match, giving the Bruins a 25-18 set win and the sweep.

“Any time you can build that early lead you get that confidence and comfort level of having a cushion, so you can make mistakes and they’re not that glaring,” said coach Michael Sealy. “And (the third set) was nice, because usually when you have a blowout set like the second, the next one will be really tight, so to have that cushion again was a bonus tonight.”

UCLA outhit Washington State .211 to .082 in the match, led by Mosser’s 14 kills. Right behind her were junior outside hitter Mac May and senior outside hitter Savvy Simo, who both recorded double-digits in kills and digs.

Coming into this game the Cougars had been leading the conference at the service line, averaging 1.93 aces per set. But the Bruins turned the table on Washington State, allowing only two aces in the entire match.

“We just took it one at a time and made sure that every single touch mattered,” May said. “We’d just take a second and pop every ball up, even if it’s not a perfect pass, just give ourselves the option to run our offense.”

The next opponent for UCLA will also be ranked, as the Bruins face off against No. 8 Washington this Sunday at Pauley Pavilion.