UCLA
Stanford
#13 UCLA Drops Regular-Season Finale
November 28, 2015 | Women's Volleyball
WVB on Twitter | WVB on Facebook | WVB on Instagram
LOS ANGELES - For the second straight match, redshirt sophomore Jessyka Ngauamo (10 kills and a career-high 17 digs) and freshman Zana Muno (56 assists and 14 digs) each had double-doubles, but the 13th-ranked Bruins dropped a five-set decision to #6 Stanford on Friday at Pauley Pavilion. Set scores were 18-25, 25-22, 25-20, 21-25, 11-15.
The Bruins, playing their fifth five-setter in the last six matches, conclude the regular season at 23-7 overall and 14-6 in Pac-12 play, while the Cardinal improve to 22-6 and 16-4 in league action.
Junior Taylor Formico continued her solid play with 24 digs, while junior Claire Felix posted a career-best 16 kills and just two errors in 32 attempts for a .438 hitting percentage, adding five blocks. Junior Jordan Anderson recorded 16 kills and five digs, sophomore Reily Buechler had 14 kills and junior Jennie Frager tallied nine kills. Senior Rachel Inouye had eight digs, while senior Karly Drolson added five, as the Bruins hit .211 for the match.
After 10 ties and five lead changes through the first half of the opening set, Stanford pulled away late. Down 7-6, the Bruins scored three in a row on a Felix/Ngauamo block and back-to-back Cardinal attack errors. UCLA's biggest lead was two on a few occasions. At 12-10, Stanford went on a 9-2 run to break it open. The Bruins were unable to string consecutive points for the rest of the set and lost it 25-18. Felix had four kills in an error-less seven attempts, Ngauamo added four kills and Inouye posted four digs, as the Bruins were out-hit .333 to .077.
Set two had eight ties and four lead changes, but the Bruins didn't allow Stanford to have more than a two-point lead to win the second. Trailing 6-5, the Bruins scored three in a row on kills by Anderson and Buechler and a Stanford attack error. The Cardinal came back with five of the next six to go up 11-9, but the Bruins responded five in a row on three Buechler kills and two Stanford attack errors to take a 14-11 lead.
While there would be one more tie, the Bruins didn't trail for the rest of the set. At 14-13, a 4-1 UCLA run on two Felix kills, an Anderson solo block and a Stanford attack error gave the home team a set-best lead of four at 18-14. Stanford would even things at 20 thanks to a 6-2 run, but the Bruins scored five of the last seven on a Felix kill and four by Buechler, including one on UCLA's second set point, to wrap up the 25-22 win. Buechler posted eight kills in the second, Felix was 4-for-5 with no errors, Formico added six digs and Muno had four digs, as the Bruins out-hit the Cardinal .382 to .250.
Stanford raced out to a 9-5 lead in set three, but the Bruins came back with six straight on a pair of kills by Ngauamo, one each by Buechler and Frager, a solo Felix block and a bad Cardinal set to go up 11-9. At 12-11, the Bruins scored five of the next six on a pair of kills by Anderson, one each by Felix and Frager and a Stanford attack error to extend the lead to 17-12.
The Bruins' biggest lead of the set was six at 21-15, 22-16 and 23-17. A Felix kill gave the Bruins six set points at 24-18, and on the third attempt, Anderson closed out a 25-20 victory. Anderson had five kills in an error-less nine attempts, while Buechler, Felix, Frager and Ngauamo each posted three kills. Ngauamo also had nine digs and Formico posted four, as the Bruins out-hit the Cardinal .325 to .214.
UCLA scored the first two points of the fourth, but it would be the largest lead of the set for the Bruins. The Cardinal came back with eight of the next 11 and didn't trail for the rest of the set. At 10-8, four in a row for the visitors extended the advantage to six at 14-8. Trailing by a set-high seven at 21-14, the Bruins went on a 7-1 run on three kills by Anderson, one each by Buechler and Frager and two Stanford attack errors to get to within one at 22-21. But Stanford scored the last three to win the fourth 25-21. Anderson had five kills and no errors in 14 attempts, while Frager was 4-for-5 with no miscues, as the Bruins were out-hit .455 to .250.
The Bruins dropped three of the first four points of set five, but came back with three straight on two Stanford errors and a Buechler kill to go ahead 4-3. The Bruins still led by one at 8-7, but Stanford went on an 8-3 run to take the fifth 15-11. Felix had three kills in the fifth, Formico added nine digs and Ngauamo posted four, as the Bruins were out-hit .182 to .000.
The Bruins find out where their postseason journey begins on Sunday at 6 p.m. when ESPNU airs the NCAA Selection Show.
