B1G Match 3: Gophers visit UCLA (10-4-24)

Ignatius L Hoops

Well-known member
Joined
Sep 9, 2015
Messages
10,439
Reaction score
3,295
Points
113

Pauley Pavillion and the 1-1 in the B1G UCLA Bruins welcome Minnesota to the first of a two stop SoCal road trip.

LOS ANGELES – The UCLA women's volleyball team earned its first-ever Big Ten Conference victory after taking down Ohio State in four sets on Sunday afternoon inside Pauley Pavilion presented by Wescom.

Set scores were 25-16, 25-22, 23-25, and 25-14

The Bruins (7-4, 1-1 Big Ten) delivered an outstanding all-around performance in front of their home fans, outmatching Ohio State (7-5, 0-2 Big Ten) across nearly every statistical category. UCLA's defensive prowess was on full display with 15 total blocks, with graduate middle blocker Anna Dodson leading the effort with a game-high seven blocks.

"First Big Ten win for UCLA women's volleyball and it was a nice win against a great team," said head coach Alfee Reft. "I thought our team did a great job putting pressure on them from the end line. I thought our team did really nice job with the scout and adapting to some changes they made in the third set."

Enjoying her best performance in a UCLA uniform was graduate middle hitter Leilani Dodson, who tallied a season-high 10 kills at an outstanding .444 clip. She impressed on the defensive end as well, coming up with six total blocks.

Junior outside hitter Cheridyn Leverette made it 10 straight matches in double figures, putting down 17 kills on the day and freshman Kiki Horne reached double-digits for the seventh time, racking up 12 on the day.

Graduate setter Audrey Pak posted her first double-double since Sept. 1, dishing out 38 assists and snuffing out 14 digs. The Moraga, Calif. native facilitated a UCLA offense that hit .254 for the match, including a .467 mark in the final set.
 







"It's a tough team we got here, a resilient team," said head coach Keegan Cook. "There was not a lot of things that went to plan today. We battled some injuries and health and some travel issues. Just a lot of intangibles with our group and I'm proud of them."

» Melani Shaffmaster had a team-high 41 assists to go along with nine digs, eight kills and four blocks. She became the first Gopher in program history to record 4,000 career assists, 1,000 digs, 300 kills and 300 blocks with her fourth block tonight.
» Lydia Grote posted 13 kills, her seventh match this season with 10+. She also tallied three service aces.
» Calissa Minatee tied her career-high with 11 kills. It was her third time this year with 10+.
» Phoebe Awoleye posted eight blocks, her seventh match this season with five-or-more. The eight blocks were a new season-best.
» Lauren Crowl posted a career-high nine kills with a season-high four blocks.
» Kate Thibault had 13 digs for her fourth match this season with 10+.
 

Broadcast was fine, but I have no idea how they missed the fact Julia left the match due to illness. Their camera sure didn't miss it.

I'm not sure I like Grote on the left. Unless Crowl can start hitting the ball, what are they gaining? There were times last night where it seemed like they had ONE offensive weapon. Sure didn't help that UCLA covered about 1000 Gopher blocks and dug like crazy, but, ultimately, the Bruins don't have much offense either, other than A Dodson.

Good thing Minatee was scoring and that the passing was solid.
 

889 attendance. Just never ceases to amaze me how little support volleyball gets in SoCal.
 




Top Bottom