UCLA Women’s Volleyball Looks to Get Back on Track Today Against Colorado

This afternoon, the UCLA women’s volleyball team wraps up their Mountain road trip when they face the Colorado Buffaloes at 1 pm PT. Today’s match will be broadcast on ESPN2.

Last Time Out

Friday night, the Bruins were in Salt Lake City to play the Utah Utes and Utah swept the Bruins, 25-17, 25-16, 28-26.

In the first set, the teams battled early and UCLA had the lead at 7-6, but an 11-2 Utah run put the Utes up 17-9. UCLA couldn’t come back from that and dropped the first set, 25-17.

The second set was very similar. UCLA had the lead at 9-8 but, after that, the Utes put together a pair of 6-1 runs while the Bruins couldn’t score on consecutive points. Utah went on to win the second set, 25-16.

The third set was a lot closer. The Bruins had a 6-4 lead after ten points, but Utah surged and 11 points over the next 16 points and the Utes took a 15-11 lead. But, a 5-1 Bruin run allowed UCLA to retake the lead, 17-16. The teams battled back and forth with neither team leading by more than one and, soon, the Utes had their first match point at 24-23. UCLA scored the next two points, taking a 25-24 lead and giving the Bruins their first set point of the match. Utah rallied for a pair of consecutive points to force another match point. Savvy Simo tied it back up at 26-26, but the Utes were able to kill the next two volleys to close out the set, 28-26, and complete the sweep of the Bruins.

Mac May led the team with 13 kills. Cali Thompson led with 18 assists while Devon Chang added 12 more. Simo recorded 12 digs for the match.

Colorado Buffaloes

The Buffs are led by Justine Spann who has 210 kills so far this season. So, the key to winning for UCLA today is probably keeping Spann in check. Jenna Ewert is closing in on 500 assists for Colorado.

After getting off to an 8-2 start in non-conference play, the Colorado Buffaloes have lost all five of their Pac-12 matches so far this season. In fact, the Buffs have only won three sets in their five Pac-12 matches.

So, based on that, I’m going to predict a 3-1 Bruin victory this afternoon, even though today’s match is on the road and being played in Boulder. It didn’t keep Southern Cal from beating the Buffs on Friday and I don’t think it will keep the Bruins from winning today.

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


Go Bruins!!!