UCLA Women’s Volleyball Looks to Extend Winning Streak As Bruins Head to Seattle

Three sweeps in a row. That’s what the UCLA women’s volleyball team has accomplished since they were swept at home by Oregon two weeks ago.

However, this weekend is going to present a challenge for the Bruins and that started tonight when the 20th-ranked Bruins head to Seattle to face the 19th-ranked Huskies.

Recent Matches

After the Bruins were swept by Oregon, they easily swept the Oregon State Beavers, 25-18, 25-16, 25-19.

They followed that up with a pair of sweeps over the Arizona schools last week.

Last Wednesday night, they defeated the Sun Devils, 25-13, 25-20, 25-14 and followed that up with a sweep of the Wildcats on Friday.

The match against the Cats was the toughest of the bunch as the first set went to overtime with the Bruins taking it, 26-24. The second and third sets were also closer than any of the sets against the Beavers or the Sun Devils with UCLA winning these sets, 25-22 and 25-23.

Jenny Mosser and Mac May lead the Bruins with a pair of double-doubles against Arizona. May had 11 kills and 11 digs while Mosser had 11 kills and 10 digs.

Washington Huskies

The Huskies enter tonight’s match on a streak of their own, but, in their case, it’s a losing two-match streak. Washington has lost back-to-back matches for the first time this season. They’ve also lost three of their last four matches and four of their last six.

So, while the Pac-12 schedule started off well for Washington, the past few weeks haven’t been kind. In their two most recent losses, they were swept by Stanford last Saturday and they lost 3-1 to Southern Cal on Wednesday night at home.

The Huskies are led by junior Kara Bahema who is averaging just under 4 kills per set. Sophomore Samantha Dreschel is second on the team with an average of 3.25 kills per set.

The Bruins will also need to look out for junior Avie Niece. While Niece is only averaging 1.42 kills per set, she is leading the Huskies in hitting percentage with .322.

Outlook

Overall, these teams look well-matched on paper. Washington really needs a win to get back on track while the Bruins are looking for a win to stay in third place in the conference standings.

Admittedly, I’m not quite sure how tonight’s match will go.

I think the winner will ultimately be the team that makes fewer attack errors than the other.

After the first few weeks of conference play, Bruin fans had reasons to be concerned about this year’s team. But, UCLA needs to continue playing the way they have over their last three matches to come out of tonight’s match with a victory.

This is your UCLA women’s volleyball vs. Washington Huskies open thread.


Go Bruins!!!