Women’s volleyball defeats USC in five sets after back-and-forth match

The Trojans don’t like to make things easy.

The Bruins were down two games to one. They either had to win set four, or take their first losing streak of the season.

“There’s a point in tight games like that where all of us are just like, ‘Go,'” said redshirt senior pin hitter Haley Lawless. “Just go.”

After USC took a 20-16 lead, UCLA battled back to tie the game at 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27 and 28 before winning the set 30-28 to force a game five.

The fifth set wasn’t much easier, but No. 8 UCLA (24-6, 15-5 Pac-12) came away with a 17-15 victory – in which USC (18-13, 10-10) never led – to win its final game of Pac-12 play 3-2.

Offense dominated the first set. The Bruins hit .333 and only committed two errors, but the Trojans hit .516 with just one error to beat UCLA 25-17. Both teams had 13 digs.

USC came up with a 9-1 run to put itself ahead 11-5 and would not trail for the remainder of the set.

“We didn’t serve tough enough. They were in their offense and just hammering balls,” said coach Michael Sealy. “We started serving better in set two.”

The Bruins jumped out to a 5-1 lead in set two thanks to a pair of kills from junior pin hitter Reily Buechler. They would go onto win the set 25-20.

UCLA saw sustained success in the second set with slides from senior middle blocker Claire Felix, who came up with four kills on five swings.

“The slide is my absolute favorite hit that she does,” said senior pin hitter Jordan Anderson. “She’s won us games with it in the past and I’m so glad that we’ve been able to dial it in and run an offense where she can bring it back, because that girl’s gonna win games for us in the tournament.”

After only three ties in the first two sets combined, the Bruins and Trojans tied seven times in set three alone, a 25-20 USC victory.

Trojan pin hitters Khalia Lanier and Brittany Abercrombie each had big sets, with five and four kills respectively. Lanier led both teams with 18 kills on the match.

That set up a game four that could either lose or extend the match for the Bruins, a similar situation to Wednesday’s game against Washington. But this time, UCLA would extend with a 30-28 victory.

“This was a nice experience because we got to remedy what didn’t go well against Washington,” Sealy said. “If we had come out here and played amazing volleyball and won 3-0, then next time that Washington thing rears it’s head, we haven’t really remedied it.”

[Related: UCLA women’s volleyball falls 3-1 to Washington in key Pac-12 match]

UCLA scored points 28 and 30 on kills from senior Anderson, with point number 29 coming on freshman setter Kylie Miller’s first block of the year.

“I came out and I was just like, ‘Hey, I’m hot, just keep feeding me,'” Anderson said. “I told my setter, ‘Hey, I got a really short blocker so just feed me.'”

Felix had the slide working again in set five, notching three kills on three swings in the decisive set. The middle blocker finished the night with 12 kills and two errors on 22 attempts, good for a team-best .455 hitting percentage.

Winning atmosphere

UCLA broke the 2,000 barrier in attendance for the first time this season, with an in-house crowd of 3,762.

“When we first came out there was no one here and we didn’t expect there to be a lot of people because two days after Thanksgiving, no students are really on campus,” Anderson said. “There were a lot of ‘SC fans as well as Bruin fans here, so I’m really glad we were able to use energy from our fans to win that game.”

Additionally, Taylor Formico, Jennie Frager, Ryann Chandler, Lawless and Anderson were honored before the game, as Saturday’s match marks their last regular-season game as Bruins. Sealy said that senior day factored into his decision of playing Lawless over sophomore Kyra Rogers.

“I am definitely going to miss that feeling of just pure competitive energy,” Lawless said. “It was awesome to feel that.”

Tournament time

The NCAA Tournament Selection Show will air Sunday at 6 p.m. on ESPNU.