UCLA Women’s Volleyball Hosts #2 Stanford Tonight

This evening, the UCLA women’s volleyball team hosts the #2 Stanford Cardinal at Pauley Pavilion at 7 pm PT. The match will air on ESPNU. The Bruins will be looking to upset the Pac-12 leaders and #2 team in the nation.

Last Time Out

UCLA faced Oregon State on Sunday after being swept by the Oregon Ducks in Eugene and the Bruins won a hard-fought, five-set match.

In that match, the Bruins won the first two sets before losing sets three and four. In the first set, UCLA fell behind 4-1 early but the Bruins tied it at 8-8 and then took their first lead at 10-9. The teams kept alternating points and, soon, it was tied 13-13. That’s when the Bruins went on a 5-0 run and took an 18-13 lead. UCLA still led at 21-17 when the Beavers went on a 5-1 run to tie the set again, 22-22, but the Bruins finished strong. After an OSU service error gave the Bruins the lead, redshirt freshman outside hitter Lexi Hadrych scored the final two points for UCLA.

The Bruins ran away with the second set by starting with a 6-1 run. UCLA never looked back and the closest Oregon State got in this set was four points down at 8-4.

After the break, UCLA led the third set early and started off with a 5-2 lead, but the Beavers didn’t go away in this set and had taken the lead at 11-10. When it was tied 16-16, Oregon State used a 3-0 mini-run to retake the lead. Despite being down 24-21, UCLA denied the Beavers three consecutive set points and tied it 24-24. The teams kept trading points and it was still tied at 28-28. Finally, Oregon State managed to win the set on their eighth set point, 30-28.

UCLA started strong again in the fourth set with a 4-1 run to begin and they didn’t relinquish the lead until it was tied at 16-16 and OSU capitalize on an attack error by Hadrych. But UCLA came right back with two kills by Mac May and one by Mari Hinkle, giving UCLA a 19-17 lead. OSU scored twice to tie it again. UCLA had a 21-20 lead when the Beavers began a 4-0 run and it was another Oregon State set point. UCLA fought off three OSU set points to tie it back up at 24-24. Then, the Beavers managed to score on a service error by UCLA and a Jennie Moser attack error to win the fourth set 26-24.

OSU began the fifth set by taking a 6-4 lead over the Bruins. A pair of kills from Moser and May, coupled with a paid of OSU attack errors, gave UCLA and 8-6 lead. The Bruins upped their lead to four by the time it was 13-9. A 3-0 OSU run closed the gap to just a point when Emily Ryan killed the next point to give UCLA their first match point. Of course, OSU fought off the first two match points to tie it 14-14, but a kill by May and another OSU attack error ended this one and the Bruins returned to Westwood happy.

Stanford Cardinal

Between the football losing streak and both soccer teams and the number of NCAA titles the Cardinal have, I’m beginning to hate Stanford almost as much as Southern Cal.

The Cardinal women’s volleyball team is no exception. They come to Pauley Pavilion tonight as the #2 team in the nation with a 13-3 record overall and a 7-1 record in conference play.

The outstanding performance by Lexi Hadrych against OSU aside, I just don’t think this team has the firepower needed to beat the Cardinal, even at home.

I’m going to predict a 3-0 Stanford sweep tonight at Pauley. I hope I’m wrong.


Go Bruins.