Stanford star overpowers squad
By Daily Bruin Staff
Oct. 11, 2001 9:00 p.m.
 Daniel Wong/Daily Bruin Senior Staff Despite winning the
first two games, the UCLA team falls to Stanford three games to
two.
By Diamond Leung
Daily Bruin Senior Staff
The UCLA women’s volleyball team seemed to be on its way
its way to a big victory. It seemed to have the match in hand. It
seemed to be on the verge of upsetting one of the top teams in the
nation. All this, despite being unable to stop Stanford’s
Logan Tom.
But in the end, the junior All-American outside hitter was too
much for the Bruins.
Tom smashed a team-high 24 kills and added 19 digs to lead the
No. 4 Cardinal to a stunning 27-30, 25-30, 30-27, 30-24, 15-13
come-from-behind victory over the No. 5 Bruins Thursday night at
Pauley Pavilion.
UCLA (9-3, 4-2 Pac-10) blew a two-game lead to Stanford (14-1,
7-0) and lost its first match of the year at home.
“Tom’s a phenomenal player,” senior outside
hitter Ashley Bowles said. “We’ve been looking all week
at her tendencies, but she got us.”
Tom got the Bruins alright. She got them good. Whenever UCLA
needed a defensive stop, Tom came through.
Not even the crowd, using taunts of “Uncle Tom’s
Cabin,” “Tomboy” and “Indian Tom
Tom,” could take her out of her game.
“It’s a little bit of a distraction, but you block
it out especially in a game like this,” Tom said.
Tom blocked it out, and the Bruins couldn’t block Tom.
Even so, UCLA put Stanford down early in the match. With game
one going to the Bruins, UCLA shot out to a 12-1 advantage in the
second game and never looked back. They took the game 30-25.
“We just kind of had a deer-in-the-headlights look after
that,” Stanford head coach John Dunning said. “We were
just kind of like a lamb out there waiting for them to slaughter
us.”
The Cardinal waited. And waited. And waited. But the Bruins
never dealt the crushing blow.
Meanwhile, the Cardinal kept setting Tom and she kept putting
the ball away. As the match went on, it became clear that this was
her night.
UCLA’s own All-American, senior Kristee Porter, had 13
first-game kills, but cooled off after that. Despite finishing with
a season-high 30 kills to go along with 16 digs, she was not happy
with her play.
“I’m disappointed with my performance,” Porter
said. “I need to be a little more stable. I’m a senior.
I can’t make those mistakes.”
Tom didn’t make as many errors, and that was the
difference.
Still, Tom and Porter, two of volleyball’s finest, put on
quite a show.
“It was the two heavyweights going after each other out
there,” UCLA head coach Andy Banachowski said. “I
certainly had the best seat in the house.”
“This is a hard match to lose,” Porter said.
“To come out so strong, and to end up losing is heartbreaking
for us.”
With contributions from Andrew Borders, Daily Bruin
Reporter.
