In 3rd consecutive win, women’s volleyball serves California a loss
UCLA women’s volleyball sophomore setter Devon Chang picked up a kill and eight digs in the Bruins’ upset over No. 15 California on Sunday afternoon. (Daanish Bhatti/Daily Bruin)
By Coral Smith
Oct. 27, 2019 11:56 p.m.
For the second time in as many games, the Bruins took down a ranked opponent.
UCLA women’s volleyball (12-7, 7-3 Pac-12) pulled off a four-set upset win over No. 15 California (17-3, 7-3) on Sunday, after downing No. 2 Stanford two days prior.
Sophomore setter Devon Chang said after a large crowd had cheered on the Bruins during Friday’s outing, the same wasn’t the case for Sunday’s match and it was the Bruins’ responsibility to create their own energy.
“We knew we had to come out strong from the get-go,” Chang said. “We had to just really start building our own momentum, and creating our own energy, because it’s a Sunday.”
UCLA led wire to wire in the first set, after three kills from junior outside hitter Mac May, a kill from junior outside hitter Jenny Mosser and a block each by both Mosser and redshirt sophomore middle blocker Emily Ryan gave the Bruins the first five points of the match.
The largest UCLA lead of the set was nine points, as the Bruins led 23-14 and 24-15. California was able to fend off four set points on three kills and an attack error, but UCLA closed it out with a kill to win the first set 25-19.
The Bruins recorded 21 kills in the first set with just one attack error for a .541 hitting percentage. Mosser said the Bruins’ ability to attack the Golden Bears early was what gave UCLA the edge in the match.
“It’s super important because (California) is obviously a good team; they’d only lost two games before us,” Mosser said. “So we needed to establish ourselves right away, and since they didn’t have a great game against USC (on Friday), we knew that they were going to come out fighting. We needed to show them that we could fight too.”
Neither team led by more than two points in the second set until a 4-1 run gave the Bruins an 11-7 lead. The Bruins’ lead never dipped below four points for the remainder of the set. Even as California made a four-point surge late in the set, UCLA was able to close it out 25-20 to go up two sets to none.
California scored three points in a row late in the third set on UCLA errors, avoiding three match points and take the lead 25-24.
The Golden Bears eventually won the set 27-25 on another attack error from May to avoid the sweep.
“They served tougher, they knew their back was against the wall, so they played a little tougher, and we just didn’t respond,” said coach Michael Sealy.
California led 4-1 early in the fourth set, but UCLA scored 10 of the next 12 points to take back the lead for good. Even with the Golden Bears going on another run to close within three, the Bruins completed the upset with a kill and block to win 25-20.
“We really focused on like, ‘Hey, you know what, they did great (in the third set), we’ll bring it back,'” Mosser said. “‘We’ll slow it down, we’ve been executing the whole game, let’s get back to that and we knew we’d be fine.”
May led all Bruin players with 21 kills, followed by Ryan, Mosser and redshirt freshman outside hitter Lexi Hadrych – all of whom posted double digit kills. Sophomore libero Kelli Barry picked up her first double-double of the season with 10 assists and 17 digs.
“(This game) really sends a message to other teams that we’re here to play,” Mosser said. “We’re not like last year, you need to take us seriously and we’re not going to roll over for you, we’re going to give you a fight.”
