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The UCLA women’s volleyball team opens Pac-12 play tonight with a match against hated crosstown rival Southern Cal at Pauley Pavilion. Tonight’s match starts at 7:30 pm PT and will air on Pac-12 Networks.
Last Time Out
Last Wednesday, the Bruins traveled up the coast for a midweek match against UC Santa Barbara. The Gauchos, who entered the match with an 8-1 record, were able to sweep the Bruins, 16-25, 16-25, 26-28.
In the first set, play started out pretty even. The set was tied 4-4 through eight points, but then the Gauchos scored on three consecutive points and they took a lead they would never relinquish. In fact, three straight points turned into a 7-2 run. From that point forward, UCLA had a hard time scoring on consecutive points and only did so once when, with the score 21-11, they scored three consecutive points to make it 21-14. They ended up losing the set 25-16.
The second set was a lot like the first set, but worse. UCSB jumped out to a quick 3-0 lead and UCLA never got really back into the set. The Bruins only scored on consecutive points twice in this set and it was just back-to-back points twice. Despite that UCLA was just three points down with the score 19-16, UCSB. But a 6-0 Gaucho run wrapped up the second set and gave UCSB another 25-16 win.
UCLA put up a bigger fight in set three. In fact, the Bruins led for most of the set and even had their first set point of the night at 24-21. A 4-0 UC Santa Barbara run gave the Gauchos their first match point. UCLA scored twice to give the Bruins their fourth set point, but UCSB rallied for three straight to close out the match.
Southern Cal Trojans
The #25 Trojans come across town tonight to open Pac-12 play. So far this season, Southern Cal has lost to Texas, Kentucky, Creighton and San Diego, yet, somehow, they are still ranked 25th in the country while the Bruins are unranked despite the fact that UCLA has lost to higher quality opponents.
Overall, a look at the teams the Trojans have beaten is not very impressive either.
So, I’m going to predict a 3-2 win tonight for the Bruins.
This is your UCLA vs. Southern Cal women’s volleyball open thread.
Go Bruins!!!