UCLA Women’s Volleyball Looks to Complete Weekend Sweep

On Friday night at Pauley Pavilion, the UCLA Women’s Volleyball team had little trouble getting past Arizona State in three sets, 25-23, 25-12, 25-22.

Even though the first and third set scores appear close, it really wasn’t that close.

The first set was the closest set of the three. It featured seven ties and four lead changes. ASU started off with a 6-2 lead before the Bruins went on a 9-3 run to take an 11-9 lead. The Sun Devils bounced right back with a 4-0 run of their own to retake the lead. After UCLA responded with two kills by Jordan Anderson and one by Claire Felix to retake the lead, the set stayed close and the teams had their final tie at 23-23. UCLA wrapped up the first set with kills by Felix and Anderson to win the set 25-23.

UCLA never trailed in the second set and the only tie of the set happened at 1-1. UCLA launched into a 16-3 run to take a 17-4 lead and the Bruins easily won the set 25-12.

The third and final set was tight early as UCLA found itself down 4-3. That’s when the Bruins took control. Reily Buechler killed a ball to tie it up and an ace serve from Ryann Chandler gave UCLA the lead for good. With a 10-9 lead, the Bruins went on a 5-0 run to give UCLA a 15-9 lead. While the Sun Devils tried to claw their way back, the closest they could get was a two-point deficit as the Bruins finished them off 25-22 in the set and 3-0 in the match.

The player of the match was definitely Reilly Buechler who had 12 kills with no errors on 21 attempts to give her a .571 hitting percentage for the match. Taylor Formico added 13 more digs to move into fifth place on the UCLA all-time digs list. She just needs 17 digs in today’s match to move into fourth place and pass Nellie Spicer.

This morning, the Bruins host the Arizona Wildcats at Pauley at 11 am. On Friday, the Wildcats swept Southern Cal at the Galen Center. Over their last four matches, the Wildcats have alternated wins and losses. Considering the fact that they won on Friday against Southern Cal, if the pattern holds true, it should mean a Bruin victory.

But, this match will likely be a tougher one than Friday night. The Wildcats, while not ranked, they could find themselves in the Top 25 next week and, in fact, a sweep of the LA schools would go a long way to making that happen. So, don’t expect Arizona to go quietly.

Arizona is led by sophomore Kendra Dahlke who is averaging 4.08 kills per set, senior Penina Snuka who leads the team with 9.56 assists per set and senior Laura Larson who is averaging 3.81 digs per set.

Here’s the info for today’s game.

#18 UCLA Women's Volleyball (12-3, 3-2)

Opponent: Arizona Wildcats (11-6, 3-2)

When: 11 AM PT, Sunday, October 9, 2016

Where: Pauley Pavilion, Los Angeles, CA

TV: Pac-12 Los Angeles and Arizona

Stream: Pac-12.com and the Pac-12 Now App

Audio: UCLABruins.com

Live Stats: UCLA Bruins StatBroadcast

Official Game Preview

Go Bruins!!!