University of Washington
UCLA
No. 2 Huskies Roll To Sweep At No. 16 UCLA
November 01, 2014 | Volleyball
LOS ANGELES – In wins over Colorado and USC, the second-ranked Husky volleyball squad won in straight sets, and yet each match was much closer, with dozens of ties, lead changes, and extra points played. The Huskies picked up another road sweep against a 16th-ranked UCLA squad tonight, but this one came in dominating fashion. Washington equaled its best start in program history tonight, lighting up the stat sheet on offense with a .455 attack percentage, and shutting down the UCLA attack with 14.5 blocks, all adding up to a 25-15, 25-17, 25-8 win at the John Wooden Center.
The Huskies have now won their first 23 matches of the season, matching the 2005 NCAA title squad, which suffered its one and only loss that year at UCLA. Washington improved to 12-0 in Pac-12 play, remaining a half-game ahead of No. 1 Stanford, which will play at Oregon over the weekend. This was the sixth time this season that the Huskies hit over .400. It's the best mark in Pac-12 play, and third-best of the season.
This is the fourth time under Head Coach Jim McLaughlin that the Huskies have swept the USC and UCLA road trip, and the second straight season. But it is the first time UW has ever won both in straight sets. Four different Huskies hit over .500 in the match, highlighting the effectiveness of the passing and the setting from junior Katy Beals, who had 18 assists, and redshirt freshman Bailey Tanner who had 12.
The dominating blocking was led by the seven block assists of Lianna Sybeldon with Melanie Wade and Kaleigh Nelson adding five apiece. Sybeldon also hammered eight kills at a .636 attack percentage, and Wade had four kills on six swings without a miss (.667) while Nelson topped them all with seven kills on 10 attempts without an error for a .700 rate.
Senior Krista Vansant had another All-American-caliber all-around performance, with nine kills on 16 swings without an error for a .562 attack percentage, to go with two aces, four digs, and four block assists. The Huskies had eight aces compared to just two for UCLA, with junior Cassie Strickland serving up three to go with five digs. The Huskies had just 20 total digs, in large part due to winning so many rallies on their first attempts, as well as piling up the blocks and aces.
“We had a good night blocking. We didn't make many errors. Everybody played well, served well, passed well,” McLaughlin said. “I think we just did a good job preparing. We played well for the weekend. We were steady, had good composure, yet we were aggressive. Any time you come to L.A. and can get two wins it's big. Whenever you hit the numbers we did, the setters were good. We passed well and the setters put up good hittable balls.”
Some tough serving from freshman Tia Scambray helped the Huskies to the first two points, as Vansant and Sybeldon slammed the first two kills. After a Crissy Jones kill, Strickland lasered an ace and UCLA misfired for a quick 5-1 Husky lead. Katy Beals dropped in an ace for 7-2, but UCLA made a push with three in a row to make it 7-5. The Huskies came right back with a Nelson kill and then their third ace in the early going, this one from Vansant for 9-5. Another 3-0 Husky run included a finish from Melanie Wade and a Scambray assist to Vansant out of the back, followed by a transition kill from Sybeldon for 13-6 as UCLA took its first timeout. Scambray connected for a kill and then went back and floated an ace for a 16-8 Husky edge. Strickland crushed a serve into the seam for another ace and 18-9. The Bruins would not get closer than eight points, as a Nelson kill and a double touch on UCLA made it set point at 24-14. On the second chance, Sybeldon finished from Beals for 25-15. Both teams were blistering the ball in the first set, but the Huskies added five aces to a .619 attack percentage to dominate despite a .450 mark for UCLA. Vansant and Nelson each had four kills and no errors, Vansant taking six swings for a .667 mark and Nelson just five for a .800 percentage. Sybeldon killed all three of her swings.
The Huskies took the first two points of the second set, but UCLA took its first lead with three in a row. A Bruins error followed by a kill from Wade and another UCLA miss made it 7-5 Huskies. Scambray had a kill and then teamed with Sybeldon for a stuff block, and then UCLA followed with two more errors out of system and needed timeout with UW up 11-6. Wade kept serving out of the break, Scambray putting another away on the left and then Sybeldon and Nelson rejecting the Reily Buechler swing for 13-6. It was a 7-0 Husky run before Buechler broke it with a kill. Sybeldon and Scambray got consecutive put-aways for 16-8. Vansant got her hand on a Lowe blast which let Strickland save it and send it back to UCLA, who set Lowe again but this time she was rejected by Sybeldon and Jones as the Huskies celebrated a 17-8 lead. But the Bruins made a charge, taking the next three points to force a Husky timeout, and then adding an ace and a Husky error to suddenly cut it to 17-13. UCLA had another look but Sybeldon, Scambray and Jones came through with a triple block to snap the five-point drought. The Huskies regained the momentum with a 3-0 run with Tanner finding Sybeldon and Vansant for kills to rebuild a 21-14 lead as the Bruins burned their last timeout. Another triple block from Wade, Vansant, and Jones stopped a Lowe swing. Nelson got another kill and Vansant dialed up another ace to bring the Huskies to set point at 24-16. Nelson got a rare assist to her fellow senior Vansant to end it, 25-17. The Dawgs hit .300 in the set and held UCLA to just .026 thanks in large part to six UW blocks, four from Sybeldon.
The Huskies took four of the first five points in set three to keep the Bruins on the defensive. Vansant and Sybeldon started things off with a block and Jones added a kill on a Tanner set. A 5-0 Husky run then broke things wide open right away as Beals got the Bruins in trouble, resulting in two blocks for Wade and Nelson, and kills by Nelson and Vansant. UCLA called for the timeout with UW up 9-2. Beals missed serve, but the Huskies kept the throttle going with two more rejections, Wade in on both along with Scambray and Nelson for a 12-3 lead. Wade put away a Beals set, and then Nelson had a solo stuff of Buechler. A Wade service ace had the Huskies completely cruising at 16-4 as UCLA took its last timeout. UCLA got the sideout but the Huskies responded with three more in a row. The Husky block continued to dominate, as Sybeldon and Vansant teamed up to reject Lowe twice more. A Sybeldon finish brought the Huskies to match point, and Strickland bombed one last ace to end it, 25-8. It was the fewest points the Huskies have allowed in a set to a Pac-12 opponent this year. Twice they surrendered just seven in wins against UNLV and Seattle U. Last season at Oregon the Huskies also had a 25-8 set win to close out a four-set victory in Eugene.
In the final frame, the Huskies posted an incredible 8.5 blocks, and hit .533 with 10 kills on 15 swings and just two errors. UCLA was forced into a -.391 mark with 13 errors to go with just four kills.
The Huskies will look to extend their run at home next Friday against the Oregon Ducks in a match that will be televised live on ESPNU.
