Women’s volleyball swept by Cal in match marked by inconsistent play

Twelve lead changes, 25 ties, zero sets won by the Bruins.

No. 20 UCLA women’s volleyball (11-7, 6-5 Pac-12) was swept by California (12-10, 4-7) Friday night at home. It was the Bruins’ second consecutive conference loss, dropping them into a tie of fifth place in the Pac-12.

“We went on a lot of runs throughout the game,” said senior libero Zana Muno. “It’s our consistency that was lacking. We’ve shown that we can score points at a really high level.”

Muno notched a match-high 21 digs and two service aces.

The Bruins were up 20-19 in the first set but dropped six of the next eight points to lose the set 25-22. UCLA recorded a hitting percentage of .171 in the set along with four service errors.

UCLA started off the second set on a 7-1 run, prompting a Cal timeout. The Bears responded with a 9-2 run to take the lead at 10-9.

“We misfired on a couple of easy plays,” said coach Michael Sealy. “That gives them momentum. We were out of system a little bit and gave up a couple of aces. The lead turned into a deficit really fast. We could’ve had more control over that.”

Sealy elected to substitute setters down 16-11 in the second set – freshman Devon Chang for junior captain Kylie Miller.

“There’s an old adage in volleyball,” Sealy said. “‘If someone’s playing bad, take them out. If everyone’s playing bad, take the setter out.'”

In UCLA’s first matchup against Cal this season on Sept. 28, Sealy made the same substitution in a similar situation. The Bruins were down a set and trailing 21-15 in the second when Chang came on for Miller. UCLA ended up winning in five sets.

After the swap on Friday, the Bears went on a 9-4 run and took the second set 25-15.

Sophomore outside hitter Mac May – the Bruins’ leading attacker this season – had only four kills from 12 attack attempts in the first two sets. At that point, fellow outside hitters sophomore Jenny Mosser and redshirt freshman Alexis Light had 22 and 20 attack attempts, respectively.

“We should’ve found her more often,” Sealy said. “Normally, if we’re popping balls up on defense, we have more opportunities to transition and that’s where (May) gets a lot of her swings. If we’re not making defensive plays, we can’t feed (May) in transition.”

Freshmen opposite Hawley Harrer and defensive specialist Sawyer Aigner-Swesey got playing time in the third set – the first time either has played since Sept. 28.

UCLA closed in on a set win at 22-20 but Cal took the next five points to complete the whitewash.

“Overall, we weren’t in our positions,” said senior middle blocker Kyra Rogers. “We blocked pretty well in the beginning, but they did a really good job of tooling our block.”

Rogers chalked up four kills with no errors for a game-high .400 hitting percentage. She led the Bruins with one solo block and three block assists.

UCLA will host No. 2 Stanford (19-1, 11-0) on Sunday afternoon. The Cardinal is on a 17-game winning streak.

“Out of the frying pan and into the fire,” Sealy said.