Home court helps USC outplay UCLA

Tuesday, October 6, 1998

Home court helps USC outplay UCLA

RECAP: Bruins fall to Trojans’ superior speed in spite of
fighting hard to win four-set match

By Nick Taylor

Daily Bruin Contributor

Ashley Bowles’ 20 kills and Kristee Porter’s aggressive play
were not enough Friday, as USC wore down the Bruins (3-8, 3-2 in
Pac-10) in four sets: 15-9, 9-15, 15-3, 15-6.

The eighth-ranked Trojans (8-3, 3-1 Pac-10) turned a tied match
into a runaway win, with a heavy dose of Jennifer Kessy and a
suffocating home crowd. But don’t be fooled by the numbers. The
Bruins played well and gave USC everything they could handle.

After the game, Kessy said, "(UCLA) really gave us a run for our
money."

The Bruins not only had to overcome what coach Andy Banachowski
described as "superior speed," but also had to deal with a packed
house of 1,079 fans in attendance, the USC band and the heat of the
small gym, which overwhelmed them later in the match.

With USC rally members sporting signs such as "Women of Troy,
can I be your waterboy?" and "#15, Will U marry me Jenny?", the
Bruins knew that they would have to deal with the taunts of the USC
crowd.

But as in any UCLA vs. USC battle, the Bruins stepped up to the
challenge. Bowles finished with 20 kills and only three errors, for
a .472 attack percentage.

Kristee Porter just missed her fifth straight match with 20+
kills, finishing with 19, and Elisabeth Bachman added 10 kills.

In Friday’s match, however, the bottom line was Kessy. She led
all players with 27 kills, a .511 attack percentage, and 15 digs as
she was dominant in the game – and the Trojans fed off of her
prowess to outplay the Bruins in the victory. She commanded two
defenders every time she leapt to make a kill, and was a threat
from anywhere on the floor.

Coach Banachowski had "tried to plan to block her a particular
way," but Kessy was still able to use "her favorite shot," the
cross-court spike. When she was not on the attack, her long serves
from deep behind the baseline gave the Bruins trouble. Kessy said
that since she, "had trouble herself with (defending) those kinds
of serves, she would just stand back there (when serving) and wail
them." This extra weapon in her game helped the Trojans slow any
UCLA momentum during the match.

Kessy said after the game that her "hitting was fine", but she
wanted to "improve on her passing and setting." Even if Kessy was
overconfident, she was good enough to wreak havoc all night long
for the Bruins.

The first set was all USC, as they played their way to an early
14-5 lead. Coach Banachowski rotated players on offense and defense
in an attempt to find the right combination against the Trojans,
but nothing worked well. UCLA could not put two points together,
and two timeouts by Banachowski did not slow the Trojans’ momentum.
But at 14-5, UCLA disrupted USC coach Lisa Love’s happy ship, as
they ran off four straight points to force Love to use a timeout
and prolong the set. USC finished the first set at 15-9, but the
Bruins showed they could string points together and make a run at
the Trojans.

UCLA took charge in the second set as Kristee Porter hit nine of
her 19 kills to lead the charge. UCLA worked its way to 5-4 and 7-5
leads early in the set, and then they caught fire. An Amy Nihipali
kill, followed by a Porter kill, and an ace by defensive specialist
Michelle Quon propelled the Bruins to a 10-6 lead. UCLA ran its
lead to 12-6 before the Trojans took a timeout, and extended their
lead to 14-6 behind a Bowles kill and a net violation on USC.

USC was able to squeeze out two more points and a yellow card on
Banachowski (due to a disputed rotation) to force a UCLA timeout at
14-8. But UCLA turned to its leaders and they delivered. Bowles
came up with a clutch kill to earn a sideout, and Porter finished
the set with a tap kill over the out-stretched fingers of USC’s
middle blockers.

After two sets the match was shaping up to be a battle between
the present star, Kessy, and the future star, Bowles. Kessy had 15
kills for an astounding .519 kill percentage, and Bowles had 12
kills without any errors, equating to a .545 kill percentage.

USC shattered those visions in the third set with a
momentum-breaking 15-0 run, after UCLA had taken an early 3-0 lead.
Bruin errors, superb serving from Jasmina Marinkovic and Kessy’s
heavy hitting paced the Trojans in the run. Not even two timeouts
by UCLA, at 3-3 and 3-7, could slow the tide. The key to this set
was Marinkovic’s serves. They were deep and to the middle of the
UCLA defense, which caused confusion among the Bruins and led to 10
of their 25 errors.

Banachowski said those serves "were a tough ball coming from
deep" because, "the ball has lots of time to move around."

Once these deep serves were retrieved and controlled, the Bruin
defenders were caught out of position. This led to wide-open holes
in UCLA’s defense which USC capitalized on.

In the fourth set UCLA gave a valiant effort to try to stay with
the Trojans. The teams traded side-outs and points to 3-5, when
Bowles powered a kill over the net. Elisabeth Bachman of the Bruins
then went right after Kessy and spiked the ball off of her body,
giving the Bruins a tie at five.

But at 5-6, UCLA served, and after two key saves by Bowles and
Selsor, were turned away by a speedy Trojan defense which forced a
USC sideout. UCLA seemed to lose some of the wind in their sails at
that point, and Kessy took over with three kills and led the
Trojans to a 12-5 lead.

The Trojans extended their lead to 14-6, and had one match point
turned away by a Bowles kill, but were able to finish the match on
an error by UCLA and win 15-6 in the fourth.

UCLA will now turn its sights on the Arizona schools, as they
face an 11-1 Arizona Wildcat team next Friday in Tucson.

BAHMAN FARADEL/Daily Bruin

Freshman outside hitter Kristee LaBell Porter hits against
Oregon.

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