#20 UCLA Women’s Volleyball Takes On #23 Washington State in Pullman

This afternoon, the UCLA women’s volleyball team visits the Washington State Cougars at noon. The Bruins extended their winning streak to four matches with a 3-1 win over Washington on Friday.

Last Time Out

Heading into Friday’s match, the Bruins had a three-match winning streak, all of which were three set sweeps. The bad news is that the sweep streak was broken on Friday as the Huskies managed to stave off defeat by winning the third set. The good news is that the Bruins also managed to snap a 15-match losing streak at Alaska Airlines Arena and a 9-match losing streak to the Huskies.

UCLA had three players with double-digit kills against the Huskies. Mac May led the team with 27 while Alexis Light and Jenny Mosser added 11 and 10, respectively. Zana Muno led the team with 19 digs while May had 13 and Mosser added 10 to give them both double-doubles. Savvy Simo also had 11 digs while Kylie Miller had a match-leading 52 sets.

After trailing early in the first set, the Bruins used a 5-1 run to tie the set up 14-14. UCLA fell behind again 19-15 when they mounted a comeback with a 7-2 run to take their first lead since 3-2. The Huskies scored on consecutive rallies to go ahead 23-22, but the Bruins shut the door with a 4-1 mini-run to win the set 26-24.

Set two started in a similar way. UCLA fell behind 6-5 at the start of the set, but a 4-0 run put the Bruins ahead 9-6. The Huskies would close the gap to two points on two occasions, but that was as close as they would get in this set as UCLA went on to win it, 25-19.

The teams battled through the first half of the third set and were tied 13-13 when UCLA jumped ahead 15-13. The Bruins led most of the rest of the way and even opened up a four-point lead at 19-15, but a 10-3 run by Washington allowed the Huskies to take the set.

At the start of the fourth set, the teams battled back and forth and the Bruins found themselves down 10-8 when UCLA scored on five consecutive rallies to take a 13-10 lead. Washington was able to tie the match back up at 18-18 and again at 20-20, but the Bruins finished strong, scoring five of the final six points to win the set, 25-21, and the match, 3-1.

Washington State Cougars

The #23 Cougars will pose a tough threat to the Bruins this afternoon. They trail UCLA by just a game in the Pac-12 standings.

The Cougs are led by seniors Taylor Mims, who is averaging nearly 4 kills per set, and McKenna Woodford, who’s averaging 3.2 kps. Meanwhile, Jocelyn Urias leads the team with a .322 hitting percentage, but she is only averaging 2.12 kps.

Washington State hasn’t lost at home yet this season. So, the Bruins will definitely have their work cut out for them today.

Outlook

Today’s game will probably end up going five sets. UCLA will need to find a way to stop Mims if they want to complete the weekend road sweep.

I think that UCLA will be able to prevail in set five to win this one, 3-2, because the Bruins have gotten hot lately.

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


Go Bruins!!!