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UCLA
Arizona State
Bruins Win Fifth Straight
October 18, 2015 | Women's Volleyball
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LOS ANGELES - Four Bruins were in double figures in kills, with the UCLA junior middles of Claire Felix and Jennie Frager combining for 23 kills and zero errors in 36 attempts for a .639 hitting percentage, as the 12th-ranked Bruins won their fifth straight match with a sweep of #10 Arizona State on Sunday at the John Wooden Center. Set scores were 25-21, 25-16, 30-28.
The Bruins improved to 15-3 overall and 6-2 in Pac-12 play, while the Sun Devils fell to 15-4 and 4-4 in league action.
Frager set career highs in kills (12) and hitting percentage (.706) and tied a personal best in attempts with 17, while Felix had 11 kills in 19 swings, adding six blocks, including a career-best three solos. Junior Jordan Anderson led all players with 15 kills, while sophomore Reily Buechler added 12 kills and eight digs.
Redshirt sophomore Ryann Chandler notched her third double-double of the season with 43 assists and 14 digs. Defensively, junior Taylor Formico was in double figures in digs with 15 to go with seven assists, and seniors Karly Drolson and Rachel Inouye both added seven digs.
The Bruins only trailed once in the opening set after dropping the initial point of the match. Two Anderson kills and three ASU errors during a 5-1 run put the home team up 5-2. At 9-6, Felix and Frager kills, with an ASU attack error in between, extended the lead to a set-best six at 12-6.
UCLA still led by four at 21-17 when Arizona State went on a 4-1 run to cut its deficit to one at 22-21. But the Bruins scored the last three points of the set on a Frager/Buechler block and back-to-back Buechler kills to win the first by a score of 25-21. Anderson led the Bruins with five kills, Felix added four with no errors in five attempts and Frager was 3-for-3 in kill attempts. Formico posted five digs and Chandler had four, as the Bruins out-hit the Sun Devils .286 to .147.
Just like the first, the Bruins' biggest deficit of the second set was just one point at 1-0 and 2-1. A 5-1 UCLA run on kills by Frager, Anderson and Buechler and two ASU errors made it 6-3. The Sun Devils got the next two to get to within one at 6-5, but could get no closer. A 7-1 Bruin run made it 13-6. A Buechler/Frager block and an ASU error put the Bruins up 8-5, and after a sideout, five in a row on a Felix kill, back-to-back kills by Buechler, a solo block from Felix and an error by the Sun Devils made it 13-6.
The Bruins' lead stayed between six and nine for the rest of the set. At 20-14, a Felix kill and back-to-back kills by Anderson gave UCLA its first lead of nine of the second, 23-14. A Frager kill on the Bruins' second set point finished up the 25-16 victory. Anderson had a set-best six kills for the Bruins, Buechler added four and Felix and Frager each posted three with no errors. The Bruins out-hit the Sun Devils .387 to .133.
The third set featured eight ties, three lead changes and a great comeback by the Bruins to wrap up the sweep. ASU had early leads of 7-2 and 11-4 before increasing its advantage to a set-best eight at 15-7. The Sun Devils still led by seven at 17-10 before the Bruins rallied with seven straight points. Anderson and Frager began the run with kills, and after an ASU attack error and a kill by freshman Kyra Rogers, Buechler posted back-to-back-to-back kills to even things at 17.
Arizona State rebounded with four of the next five to go up 21-18, but kills by Buechler and Felix, as well as a Felix solo roof, equaled the score at 21. ASU scored the next two, but Felix and Anderson kills tied it at 23. The Sun Devils got the next one to earn a set point, but kills by Felix and Anderson gave the Bruins their first match point. ASU would save UCLA match points at 25-24, 26-25 and 27-26 before earning its second set point at 28-27.
However, the Bruins got the next three on kills by Frager and Buechler and a Felix/Rogers block to finish the match and win the third 30-28. Buechler had six kills and four digs in the third, Frager posted a 6-0-9 (.667) hitting line, Felix added a 4-0-8 (.500) hitting line with three blocks and Anderson notched four kills. In the digs department, Formico had eight, Chandler seven, Inouye six and Drolson four, as the Bruins out-hit the Sun Devils .194 to .182.
The Bruins begin a four-match road trip next Friday at #24 Oregon at 6 p.m. The match will air on Pac-12 Networks.
