Thursday night ended the winning streak.

But by Saturday afternoon, the Bruins had reclaimed victory.

No. 25 UCLA women’s volleyball (3-1) started its road trip with a loss against No.17 Tennessee (2-2) on Thursday – its first loss of the season. UCLA returned to Food City Center in Knoxville, Tennessee, on Saturday with a win against Long Island (1-5), defeating the Sharks in the first three sets.

“I think we are leaving the weekend with good lessons learned,” said coach Alfee Reft.

The Bruins’ Thursday night matchup started off with a 25-15 first set loss as Tennessee’s defense kept the Bruins to a .143 hitting percentage.

“We just weren’t hitting the targets we wanted to hit against Tennessee,” Reft said.

Junior outside hitter Cheridyn Leverette was the Bruins’ top scorer, notching 15.5 points at a steady .267 hitting percentage. Despite Leverette’s strong performance, including 13 kills, UCLA couldn’t keep up with its opponent. Its performance against Tennessee was notably weaker than what the Bruins displayed last weekend when they achieved a .342 hitting percentage against Coastal Carolina compared to Thursday’s .233.

The Bruins came within reach in the second and third sets but still fell short – losing 26-24 and 27-25, respectively.

“I thought our reception wasn’t representative of how we receive the ball,” Reft said.

Despite the loss, the Bruins celebrated individual wins. Senior libero Peyton Dueck achieved a milestone of 1,000 career digs.

“I am just super excited and super grateful for everything that my team and coaches have done to help me reach my goal during my senior year,” Dueck said.

After their loss on Thursday, the Bruins had two days to regroup and looked ready to beat the Sharks – which they did in authoritative fashion.

“We definitely didn’t want the loss to change our rhythm of anything so we regrouped and got back to how the Bruins play,” Dueck said.

In the first and third sets, the Bruins took control, restricting the Sharks to just 12 points in each. The Bruins maintained a hitting percentage of .385 during the match, marking their most efficient performance since the .402 mark the UCLA set against Liberty on Sept. 8, 2023, while Long Island lagged behind with a mere .096.

Leverette recorded a match-high 15 kills at a career-best .500 hitting percentage. She wasn’t the only Bruin to reach that efficiency – graduate student middle blocker Anna Dodson hit a .556 clip with 11 kills of her own.

“We really attacked yesterday’s practice with intentional upgrades,” Dodson said. “We had to go and execute and to focus on our side of the net and to work on things that got the best of us.”