LOS ANGELES — The first-round NCAA Tournament match between the Long Beach State women’s volleyball team and UCLA turned out much differently Friday night than the early-season meeting.
Kaitlin Sather’s team-leading 12th kill of the night off the LBSU block ended a three-set sweep for No. 8-seeded UCLA — 25-20, 25-20, 25-16 — and ended the 49ers’ season at Pauley Pavilion. The Bruins improved to 15-0 all-time in first- and second-round matches in their home building and will face Baylor, which swept Georgia Tech earlier in the night, on Saturday at 7 p.m.
“We felt we had a score to settle with Long Beach since they beat us earlier in the year and I think that helped motivate us quite a bit,” UCLA head coach Andy Banachowski said.
Tied at 10 in the final set, Katie Camp recorded a controversial kill that resulted in an LBSU warning. As Ashley Lee was going up for a set, Camp’s arm reached over but the officials awarded the Bruins the point and handed the 49er bench a yellow card for the ensuing protest.
The 49ers, who hit just .178 in the contest, shook off the no-call to pull within 15-14 on a Michelle Osunbor and Brittney Herzog block.
UCLA put the match out of reach with a 6-0 run and cruised the rest of the way, as Sather’s final kill was serenaded by the UCLA faithful.
“We wanted to get to the second round!” Sather said.
LBSU (22-9), which swept the Bruins in mid-September at the Cal State Fullerton tournament, was paced by fifth-year senior Naomi Washington’s nine kills. Sophomore outside hitter Caitlin Ledoux added eight kills. Lee recorded a double-double with 24 assists and 13 digs.
“I thought we played very poorly,” 49er head coach Brian Gimmillaro said. “It’s not that we didn’t want to be successful. I think the players wanted to be successful so much that we lost some discipline and lost their control sometimes.
“We just seemed to get a little rattled. I think that was the difference.”
Along with Sather, junior outside hitter Dicey McGraw added 12 kills for UCLA (24-8). Bojana Todorovic chipped in with three service aces and nine kills, most of which came in emphatic fashion, while Amanda Gil and Camp added seven kills apiece. Sophomore libero Lainey Gera finished with a match-high 17 digs.
“I thought our serving was very effective tonight,” said Banachowski of the Bruins’ eight service aces.
McGraw said the result was a testament to what the Bruins were able to do, as opposed to the 49ers’ sweep in the previous meeting.
“It had a lot to do with our side of the net,” she said. “We did every aspect of the game. We served well, passed well, hit well, blocked well.”
Added Gimmillaro, “We just didn’t play our normal game. Now, is our normal game good enough? I don’t know, but we didn’t play it.”
Much like the opening set, neither team could pull away with a sizeable lead heading into a mandatory timeout, as UCLA led 15-14 in set two.
The Bruins grabbed a four-point advantage after Lauren Cook’s serve was mishandled by Laura Schuck to give UCLA a 21-17 lead.
Trailing 23-17, Washington delivered back-to-back kills but Todorovic ended the set to give UCLA a 25-20 win and 2-0 lead in the match.
“It’s frustrating losing like we did,” Ledoux said. “We were prepared, we just lost our discipline.”
After battling back-and-forth to open the match, the Bruins took a four-point lead on a Sather kill to push the score to 18-14. Cook added a dump to extend the lead to seven, 23-16.
Facing set-point, the 49ers received a double-block from Washington and Osunbor, who added a kill on the ensuing play to pull within 24-20, but Gil ended the frame and gave UCLA a 25-20 victory.
The match was the final in the collegiate careers of Herzog and Washington, who said she “matured” in her time at The Beach.
“It was a rollercoaster for me, emotionally. Starting as a freshman, I’ve been through a lot,” she said, alluding to her first season, which came at the time her hometown of New Orleans, La. was hit by Hurricane Katrina.
“I don’t regret anything that happened, and I’m grateful that I was a part of this program.”