17th-Ranked Bruins Head to #22 ASU, Host USC on Senior Night

17TH-RANKED BRUINS HEAD TO #22 ARIZONA ST., HOST USC
The regular season comes to a close this week, as the 17th-ranked Bruins buffer Thanksgiving Day with a pair of matches. UCLA travels to #22 Arizona State for a 3 p.m. PT match on Wednesday, followed by a home tilt with USC on Friday at 8:30 p.m. at Pauley Pavilion. The UCLA-ASU match will have a live video stream on UCLABruins.com, while the UCLA-USC contest will be televised live on ESPNU and have a free audio broadcast on UCLABruins.com. Following the Bruins-Trojans match, seniors Julie Consani, Karsta Lowe, Megan Moenoa and Zoë Nightingale will be honored after their final regular-season home contest.

WHAT’S NEXT
The NCAA Selection Show will air on Sunday at 5:30 p.m. on ESPNU. Next Friday, the NCAA Tournament begins with the 64-team field playing at 16 campus sites. The 32 winners from Friday’s action play in the second round on Saturday with a Regional berth on the line.

BRUINS IN THE POLLS
UCLA remained at 17th in this week’s AVCA Coaches Poll, earning six additional points from last week. Since starting the season outside of the Top 25, the Bruins have been ranked for 12 straight weeks. UCLA has moved up in the rankings in eight of those dozen weeks. Ten Bruin opponents are ranked in the Top 25 this week (#1 Stanford, #4 Penn State, #5 Washington, #11 Illinois, #13 Oregon, #14 Arizona, #18 Colorado, #22 Arizona State, #23 Utah and #25 Hawai’i). Three others, Oregon State, USC and Loyola Marymount, also received votes.

HIGH FIVE FOR KARSTA LOWE
Senior Karsta Lowe made more history on Monday when she was named Pac-12 Offensive Player of the Week for the fifth time this season. The five weekly awards are the most in a single season at UCLA, breaking the tie with Natalie Williams, who had four conference POW awards in 1990.

Lowe became the first Bruin ever to earn Player of the Week accolades in back-to-back weeks on Sept. 8 and 15, also receiving the award on Sept. 29 and Oct. 20. It is the seventh time in her career that Lowe has been bestowed a weekly honor by the Pac-12. She was named Defensive Player of the Week on Sept. 3, 2012 and Offensive Player of the Week on Sept. 2, 2013.

The seven awards are tied for the fourth most in Pac-12 history, trailing only Stanford’s Logan Tom and Washington’s Krista Vansant (nine) and Williams’ eight. Stanford’s Alix Klineman and Washington’s Christal Morrison each had seven. Lowe’s five honors are the most since Tom had that total in 2001.

It is Lowe’s sixth weekly accolade of the year, as she was named Sports Imports/AVCA National Player of the Week on Oct. 21, the seventh Bruin ever to earn that award. The Bruins have garnered six Pac-12 weekly honors this season. Reily Buechler was named conference Freshman of the Week on Oct. 20.

Lowe continued her outstanding all-around season last weekend in Oregon, recording a pair of matches with at least 20 kills, coming up two digs shy of a pair of double-doubles and adding five aces.

In the two matches, Lowe had 42 kills (6.00 per set) and 18 digs (2.57 per set) with five aces and five blocks, posting a .260 hitting percentage.

Lowe opened the week with 22 kills, eight digs, two aces and two blocks at #14 Oregon on Friday. After being held in check with three kills in the opener, but still contributing three digs and two aces, Lowe was on fire in the next two sets. She had seven kills, two digs and a block in the second, adding 12 kills, three digs and a block in the third.

On Saturday at Oregon State, Lowe surpassed the 20-kill mark for the 17th time this season, hitting the number on the nose. She hit .286 and added three aces and three blocks to go with 10 digs for her team-leading sixth double-double of the year. Lowe led or tied the Bruins in kills in each of the first three sets. She had five kills, three digs and an ace in the first, four kills and two digs in the second and six kills, three blocks, two digs and one ace in the third. Lowe was one off the team lead in the fourth, tallying five kills, three digs and an ace.

Lowe continues to lead the nation with 5.96 kills per set and 6.60 points per set, adding a team-best 29 aces. She also has 1.96 digs per set, 0.64 blocks per set and a .314 hitting percentage.

A GRAND CLUB
On the penultimate point of the Oct. 5 match at Washington State, senior Karsta Lowe recorded the 1,000th kill of her career, becoming the 27th Bruin to join the grand club. Lowe now has 1,309 kills, putting her 18th all-time. Next up on the list are Lauren Fendrick (17th, 1,356) and Jeanne Beauprey/Dicey McGraw (tied for 15th, 1,365) ... sophomore Taylor Formico surpassed 1,000 digs for her career against Colorado on Oct. 12. She has 1,182, producing 792 during her freshman season at UCSB in 2012 and 390 this year.

EXPLORING THE UCLA RECORD BOOKS
It’s not only the total kills category that Lowe is climbing up the UCLA rankings in. Her career kills per set average is 3.87, which is sixth all-time as a Bruin. Lowe is .11 kps ahead of Ashley Bowles (3.76), but behind fifth-place Elaine Youngs (3.96). Lowe’s .303 hitting percentage is 11th all-time. Lowe is neck and neck with Kristee Porter for the UCLA single-season mark for kills and points per set. Porter averaged 5.98 kps in 2000, with Lowe checking in at 5.96 kps. Porter had 6.62 pps that season and Lowe is at 6.60 pps ... senior Zoë Nightingale has moved into ninth in UCLA history in block assists with 364. She is eight shy of eighth-place Dawn Kenny. Nightingale is 10th in total blocks with 426 and 13 behind ninth-place Kenny.

A PERFECT GAME
Sophomore Claire Felix set a UCLA record on Nov. 16 against California when she had 12 kills and no errors in 12 attempts. She became the first Bruin ever, with a minimum of 10 attempts, to hit 1.000 in a match. The previous UCLA hitting best was set in 1999 when Elisabeth Bachman posted 15 kills and no errors in 16 attempts for a .938 clip against Washington. Felix is the 29th player in NCAA history to hit 1.000 in a match with a minimum of 10 attempts. Only eight others have had as many kills with no errors. Two posted 15, one had 14 and five recorded 13. Felix joined four others who have gone 12-for-12.

NEWS AND NOTES
The Bruins have won 55 straight matches when hitting .300 or better. UCLA has surpassed that mark 11 times this season, including Nov. 16 against California when it hit .419 ... the Bruins have crossed the .400 mark three times against Oregon (.441, Oct. 15) and San Francisco (.419, Sept. 11) ... UCLA is 19-0 when leading the hitting percentage battle and 12-0 when either leading or tying its opponent in blocks ... the Bruins are 16-0 when holding their opponent under a .247 hitting percentage ... Michael Sealy won the 100th match of his head coaching career with his victory at USC on Sept. 23 ... UCLA posted the 1,200th victory in program history on Sept. 11 against San Francisco ... freshman Reily Buechler’s last kill in Saturday’s match at Oregon State was the 300th of her career and her 17th against the Beavers, which marked her 15th double-figure kills match of the season. She also tied her season high in blocks against OSU with four ... redshirt sophomore Haley Lawless posted her third double-figure kills match of the year on Saturday against OSU with 11. Her season and career high came in the Bruins’ first meeting of the year with the Beavers on Oct. 17 when she had 14 ... junior Karly Drolson notched her fifth double-figure digs match of the season at Oregon State when she had a season-high 20. It was her seventh career match with at least 20 digs, with the previous six contests coming last season when she was the starting libero ... coming off the heels of a great offensive weekend against the Bay Area schools, sophomore Claire Felix came up big on defense, posting 11 blocks last weekend, including a career-high six at OSU. Offensively at the net, Felix has a .526 hitting percentage with 45 kills and only five errors in 76 attempts over her last six matches ... senior Megan Moenoa recorded her first double-double of the season and eighth of her career at Oregon State with 43 assists and 12 digs, both season highs. In her last three matches, she is averaging 10.40 assists per set and 2.10 digs per set ... sophomore Taylor Formico has at least eight digs in every match this season and has reached double figures in digs 24 times, including four in a row. She is in the midst of her best stretch of the year, averaging 4.69 digs per set in her last four contests ... senior Zoë Nightingale notched her ninth match of the season with at least five blocks against California on Nov. 16. Her season high in roofs came against Hawai’i (Sept. 12) and Washington State (Nov. 2) when she had eight apiece ... senior Julie Consani has recorded at least 50 assists six times this season, registering a season-best 59 against Oregon on Oct. 15. She has three double-doubles, her most recent coming against Washington State on Nov. 2 when she had 53 assists and 12 digs ... junior Rachel Inouye had double figures in digs for the third time this season against WSU when she had 10. Her season best was 12 at Washington on Oct. 3 ... for all of her talk about her kills this season, senior Karsta Lowe has also been chipping in defensively and behind the service line. She leads the team with 29 aces (eight with multiple winners) and has produced at least one ace in six of her last seven matches, totaling 10 during that stretch. On defense, she has 56 digs (2.33 per set) over her last seven and 14 blocks (0.58 per set).

BRUINS IN THE NCAA RANKINGS
Senior Karsta Lowe enters the week leading the nation in kills (5.96) and points (6.60) per set, also placing 11th in attacks per set (12.24). The last Bruin to lead the country in a statistical category was Nana Meriwether, when she was first in hitting percentage and blocks per set in 2006. Senior Julie Consani is tied for 12th in assists per set at 11.50. As a team, the Bruins are the nation’s leader in aps (14.25) and kps (15.17) and 16th in hitting percentage (.270). The last time UCLA led the country in a stat category was 1997 when it was tops in aps and kps.

BRUINS IN THE PAC-12 RANKINGS
Senior Karsta Lowe leads all Pac-12 players in kills (5.96) and points (6.60) per set and is also fifth in service aces per set (0.29). Senior Julie Consani is second in assists per set (11.50) and freshman Olga Strantzali ranks ninth in aces per set (0.26). As a team, the Bruins are first in aps (14.25) and kps (15.17) and third in hitting (.270).

LOWE NAMED SPORTS IMPORTS/AVCA NATIONAL POW
In the midst of an historic season, senior Karsta Lowe earned yet another well-deserved recognition on Oct. 21, becoming just the seventh Bruin to receive Sports Imports/AVCA National Player of the Week honors.

Lowe is the first Bruin to be named AVCA NPOW since Kelly Reeves (Sept. 27, 2011). Lowe joins the illustrious list of Annett Buckner (Oct. 17, 1994), Kristee Porter (Oct. 19, 1998), Nellie Spicer (Nov. 14, 2005), Nana Meriwether (Sept. 5, 2006) and Lauren Cook (Sept. 15, 2009) who have also earned the award.

SCOUTING THE ARIZONA STATE SUN DEVILS
The Sun Devils (18-12, 8-10 Pac-12) have dropped three of their last four matches to Oregon State, Oregon and Washington. Three of those four have gone five sets in a win against Washington State and losses to the Oregon schools. Three players are averaging over 2.00 kills per set, led by junior Macey Gardner’s 4.30 kps. Sophomore McKenzie Willey is second (2.26 kps), while junior Mercedes Binns is third (2.08). Junior Bianca Arellano handles the setting duties and is averaging 10.34 assists per set with a team-leading 26 aces. Defensively, freshman Halle Harker is first with 3.88 digs per set, while Binns leads the team with 0.84 blocks per set.

THE MATCHUP: BRUINS VS. SUN DEVILS
UCLA leads the all-time series with Arizona State 67-9, but the Sun Devils snapped a six-game losing streak to the Bruins with a five-set victory in Westwood last Nov. 22. UCLA, which is 60-0 against ASU when winning the first set, is 29-6 in matches played in Tempe. The Bruins’ most recent win against ASU was a sweep in Tempe on Oct. 20, 2013. UCLA has won three straight at ASU.

SCOUTING THE USC TROJANS
USC, which plays at Arizona on Wednesday, is 14-14 and 7-11 in Pac-12 play, having lost four in a row to the Bay Area and Oregon schools. Three players are averaging over 2.00 kills per set, led by junior Samantha Bricio, who is tops on the squad with 4.25 kps and 77 aces. Sophomore Ebony Nwanebu is second at 3.09 kps, while freshman Lauryn Gillis is third with 2.15 kps. Sophomore Alice Pizzasegola (6.00 assists per set) and senior Emily Young (2.54) are splitting the setting duties. Sophomore Taylor Whittingham is first on the team with 4.86 digs per set, while junior Alicia Ogoms is the team leader in blocks per set (0.97).

THE MATCHUP: BRUINS VS. TROJANS
UCLA increased its lead in the all-time series against USC to 59-55 after sweeping the Trojans at Galen Center on Sept. 23. Karsta Lowe had 22 kills, Reily Buechler added 10, Taylor Formico posted 12 digs and Rachel Inouye recorded 10. The Bruins are 28-22 against the Trojans in Westwood, but USC swept UCLA last Nov. 27 at Pauley Pavilion. UCLA won the previous matchup between the two teams in Westwood on Nov. 23, 2012, a four-set win for the Bruins.