UCLA vs Cal

[bownlovingfreak]

Wow this match was intense, huh? Johnson, Pressey and Beck all hit negative!

UCLA has seemed to find a good 2nd middle, Katie Mills. Cutura had good numbers. Orchard has 23 points and Cutura 30.5 points!

[jgrout]

www.dailycal.org/sharticle.php?id=26189
Cal Succumbs to Late Rally, Loses in Five
BY Matt Kawahara
Contributing Writer
Friday, September 28, 2007

With a 2-0 lead over UCLA and having just stormed back from a 10-1 deficit to tie the third game at 25-25, the No. 10 Cal volleyball team looked like it might just close out an upset over the No. 5 Bruins.

Up 26-24 and serving in the fourth game, the Bears (10-3, 0-2 in the Pac-10) seemed to be on the verge of finishing the match again.

But when UCLA stuffed both opportunities and took a 9-4 lead in the fifth and final game of last night’s marathon at Haas Pavilion, the final outcome of the match became heartbreakingly clear for Cal.

Down 2-0 at halftime, the Bruins (13-1, 3-0) emerged from the locker room a revitalized team, storming all the way back to win 3-2 (28-30, 24-30, 30-28, 31-29, 15-9) and preserving their perfect conference record.

It was the second tough loss in a row for the Bears, who now find themselves winless in Pac-10 competition having lost 3-1 to Stanford last Friday.

“This conference is awfully good,” Cal coach Rich Feller said. “It doesn’t matter if you’re up 2-0 on anybody, you can’t think you’re going to win. And I don’t think there was any conscious thought like that, but for sure when they went up 6-0 or 6-1 in game three, I’m sure we started to doubt how good we were.”

UCLA began its comeback as soon as it hit the court after halftime, jumping out to a 10-1 lead in the third frame and holding off a charge from the Bears to secure the game. The Bruins then battled back from a 23-19 deficit in the fourth game, riding a 12-6 run to edge Cal and swipe the momentum that was building inside Haas Pavilion. By the time UCLA outside hitter Rachell Johnson sealed the victory with her sixth kill, the pervading sense was one of disbelief.

“We had to make adjustments as we (went) along,” Bruins coach Andy Banachowski said. “We’re not a big, physical team, and Cal was much more physical than we were tonight. But we managed to score points at the right time and sneaked one away from them.”

The Bears, who entered the match leading the nation with 3.90 blocks per game, recorded 23.0 team blocks in a dominant performance at the net. Middle blocker Ellen Orchard, who set a new school record with 13 blocks, and outside hitter Hana Cutura anchored a front line that disrupted the UCLA attack all night, allowing only 66 kills on a whopping 222 attempts.

But while Cal was able to contain the Bruins’ attack for most of the match, it had trouble generating offense of its own, hitting .146 despite Cutura’s match-high 24 kills.

“I think the key was, we couldn’t get kills,” Feller said. “We were stopping them from getting kills at the net, but they were stopping us from getting kills in the backcourt. We couldn’t get our kills on their second line of defense, and that’s the frustrating side.”

Now, the Bears have less than 24 hours to regroup before No. 4 USC visits Haas Pavilion tonight at 7 p.m.

The Trojans (12-1, 2-1) are halfway through their Northern California swing, after losing to No. 2 Stanford in three games last night. The loss was the first of the season for USC.

2006 All-American Asia Kaczor paces the Trojans’ offense, leading the team with 4.45 kills per game entering USC’s match with the Cardinal. The Trojans played the majority of their preseason at home and are competing in consecutive road games for only the second time this season.

Contact Matt Kawahara at [e-mail].

[ugopher]

If Cal wins tonight or at least doesn't get swept, they should move to 5th or 6th in next week's poll.

[bigfan]

ugopher said:

If Cal wins tonight or at least doesn't get swept, they should move to 5th or 6th in next week's poll.

Cal pissed this match away.....if they beat USC.....which is a very doable situation....they should move up. Reading the articles on this match.....the Cal coach must be upset and also upbeat....Cal can beat UCLA at Pauley next month.

[PierreAmi]

UCLA's little girls were phenomenal in the back row. Their defense and passing is what brought the Bruins back into this match.

Cal made little errors at the wrong times - just as they did against Stanford. They have a knack of serving into the net, long, or wide - giving critical points away.

[ladeda]

Disappointing that Cal, after getting off to great start, wasn't able to beat the Barbie dolls. I was pulling for Rich and the girls.

[bownlovingfreak]

Um you did realize that the player that looks MOST like a barbie is Morgan Beck, right? She's a hottie.

[PierreAmi]

But she looks real. The UCLA Barbies look like caricatures.

[P10lurker]

bownlovingfreak said:

Wow this match was intense, huh? Johnson, Pressey and Beck all hit negative!

UCLA has seemed to find a good 2nd middle, Katie Mills. Cutura had good numbers. Orchard has 23 points and Cutura 30.5 points!

At times Mills looked overwhelmed by the speed of the college game once she settled down she played alright I was not blown away by her power or timing, at times she looked awkward and clumsy.

UCLA is very vulnerable in the middle if they had a Meriwether this match would not have been close.

I am really surprised they kept Johnson in when she was struggling terribly. Carstensen or Schoen could have helped last night. Banachowski always stays with Johnson despite her level of play, I find it very odd.

[FloridaPerson]

Has Carstensen played at all at UCLA? I remember watching her in high school, where she was a woman amongst girls and was excited to see what she would do in college, but it seems she never gets on the court. It's all a bit disappointing.

[baywatcher]

Pressey was not converting, for whatever reason, be it tendonitis or what, and Morgan Beck was getting set in a standing position, taking a standing swing, and also not converting. Combined with poor connections with Reilly in the middle, who was hitting almost ..500 but hit .000 last night, and a significant part of the Call offense was missing, and they still went 5 games. UCLA passed great on serve receive against a good serving Cal team, not even making Spicer work that hard and giving her multiple choices. If they keep passing like that UCLA will be tough to beat. I thought UCLA back row defense was verry good, but Cal was not hitting their best shots. Saither was great with severe cut shots from the right side and Daley was getting quick enough sets outside from Spicer to hit into the seam and tool the block or score. When Cal could get in position they obviously had quite a few blocks, but with low percentages on both sides they had a lot of chances.

[P10lurker]

floridaperson said:

Has Carstensen played at all at UCLA? I remember watching her in high school, where she was a woman amongst girls and was excited to see what she would do in college, but it seems she never gets on the court. It's all a bit disappointing.

Carstensen has played and has done ok, for her size, like Mills they look like they barely get off the ground when they attempt to block. I actually like Carstensen and Schoen’s play over Mills.

It is UCLA’s defense and passing which will pull them through this season the blocking is very suspect.

[ay2013]

p10lurker said:

floridaperson said:

Has Carstensen played at all at UCLA? I remember watching her in high school, where she was a woman amongst girls and was excited to see what she would do in college, but it seems she never gets on the court. It's all a bit disappointing.

Carstensen has played and has done ok, for her size, like Mills they look like they barely get off the ground when they attempt to block. I actually like Carstensen and Schoen’s play over Mills.

It is UCLA’s defense and passing which will pull them through this season the blocking is very suspect.

Yes UCLA's defense is their shining star...but so far they have come up against teams that can't seem to hold their composure at the right time... Once these teams that can out gun UCLA on any day (Stanford, USC, UW, Cal...possibly Oregon) learn to keep their composure agaisnt the solid UCLA defense it should make for a very good second half of the Pac-10 season. Cal is not to be taken lightly this year by no means. If they calmed down the nevers they are a better team than UCLA and on par with USC and Washington...I Coutura is a monster and has a nice power on her spikes...lloyd seems to be distributing the ball around (although Pressy hasn't been herself) and she also has a killer serve...it has the trajectory of a floarter but the velocity of a jumper....NASTY!

[BearClause]

ay2013 said:

p10lurker said:

Carstensen has played and has done ok, for her size, like Mills they look like they barely get off the ground when they attempt to block. I actually like Carstensen and Schoen’s play over Mills.

It is UCLA’s defense and passing which will pull them through this season the blocking is very suspect.

Yes UCLA's defense is their shining star...but so far they have come up against teams that can't seem to hold their composure at the right time... Once these teams that can out gun UCLA on any day (Stanford, USC, UW, Cal...possibly Oregon) learn to keep their composure agaisnt the solid UCLA defense it should make for a very good second half of the Pac-10 season. Cal is not to be taken lightly this year by no means. If they calmed down the nevers they are a better team than UCLA and on par with USC and Washington...I Coutura is a monster and has a nice power on her spikes...lloyd seems to be distributing the ball around (although Pressy hasn't been herself) and she also has a killer serve...it has the trajectory of a floarter but the velocity of a jumper....NASTY!

Lloyd's serve is basically a standing top-spin serve. It's hard for defenses to adjust since she's pretty good at varying the trajectory and amount of spin.

I've been keeping away from posting since last night. I'll just say it was less than a satifying outcome last night. Cal just couldn't convert in crunch time.

[brybry2]

ay2013 said:

p10lurker said:

Carstensen has played and has done ok, for her size, like Mills they look like they barely get off the ground when they attempt to block. I actually like Carstensen and Schoen’s play over Mills.

It is UCLA’s defense and passing which will pull them through this season the blocking is very suspect.

Yes UCLA's defense is their shining star...but so far they have come up against teams that can't seem to hold their composure at the right time... Once these teams that can out gun UCLA on any day (Stanford, USC, UW, Cal...possibly Oregon) learn to keep their composure agaisnt the solid UCLA defense it should make for a very good second half of the Pac-10 season. Cal is not to be taken lightly this year by no means. If they calmed down the nevers they are a better team than UCLA and on par with USC and Washington...I Coutura is a monster and has a nice power on her spikes...lloyd seems to be distributing the ball around (although Pressy hasn't been herself) and she also has a killer serve...it has the trajectory of a floarter but the velocity of a jumper....NASTY!

Passing and defense go a long way. That's why I thought UCLA would be solid this season. A lot of other teams will just start struggling on a given night w/ their serve receive. USC, Stanford, and Penn State are all quite vulnerable. I think it would be tough for Nebraska to break down. Larson and their libero seem quite solid. A team like Nebraska or UCLA have the comfort to know that on most nights they will get good passes to their setters and be able to run an offense.