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The UCLA women’s volleyball team is on a roll after winning four straight. This afternoon, the Bruins are in Seattle for a match against the #12 Washington Huskies at 2 pm PT on PAc-12 Washington.
Last Time Out
On Friday night, the Bruins were in Pullman, Washington for a match against the Washington State Cougars. Like so many of UCLA’s wins this season, the Bruins swept the Cougars, 27-25, 25-17, 25-22.
Mac May led both teams with 20 kills while Lexi Hadrych added 11. Savvy Simo and Kelli Barry were in double-digits in digs with 20 and 12, respectively, while Cali Thompson had 24 assists and Devon Chang put up 20.
In the first set, UCLA jumped ahead to an early 6-3 lead and held it until the Cougars tied the set up 15-15. Washington State finally took a lead at 20-19, but UCLA tied it back up at 21-21. The Cougars scored three of the next four points to take a 24-22 lead, but the Bruins fought off two set points to tie the set, 24-24 and, then, they won three of the next four points to close out the first set 27-25, giving UCLA a 1-0 lead for the match.
The second set was all UCLA as the Bruins started the set by winning five of the first six points. The Cougars close the gap to just a point on three occassions at 7-6, at 8-7 and at 9-8, but they weren’t able to tie the set up and UCLA used a 5-0 run to extend their lead to 14-8. From that point, Washington State was only able to score on consecutive points once as UCLA went on to win this set, 25-17.
Washington State came out strong after the break by winning four of the first six points, but a 9-2 Bruin run gave UCLA an 11-6 lead. That would prove to be enough as the Cougars were unable to cut the Bruins’ lead to less than two on multiple occasions. UCLA took this set, 25-22, to finish the sweep of the Cougs.
Washington Huskies
The last time the Bruins met the Huskies, UCLA lost the match, 3-1. It was the only loss this season by the Bruins where they weren’t swept. Frankly, I’d be surprised if they are able to avoid being swept today and, at the same time, the Bruins lost two of the sets in the last match against the Huskies by just two points each. So, while I can see UCLA putting up a fight today, I still think the Huskies will have too much firepower for the Bruins and will end up beating UCLA, 3-2, today.
Go Bruins.