No. 17 Bruins Fall in Four to No. 9 Utah
WVB on Twitter | WVB on Facebook | WVB on Instagram
LOS ANGELES - Senior Mac May led the 17th-ranked Bruins with 15 kills to go with seven digs and three aces, but UCLA dropped a four-set decision against No. 9 Utah on Sunday at Pauley Pavilion presented by Wescom. Set scores were 25-21, 18-25, 17-25, 10-25.
Junior Zoe Fleck had 19 digs, junior élan McCall added seven kills and seven digs and freshman Kate Lane posted 15 assists and nine digs. Redshirt sophomore Lexi Hadrych and freshman Allison Jacobs each had six kills, senior Sabrina Smith recorded four kills, four digs and three blocks and freshman Audrey Pak tallied 19 assists and three digs.
The Bruins (11-5) led wire-to-wire in the opening set, scoring the first six points on kills by redshirt junior Emily Ryan and McCall, a Utah attack error, a May ace and two more Ute miscues. After a Utah sideout, back-to-back McCall kills gave the Bruins their largest lead of the opener at 8-1. The Utes would get to within one late in the set at 21-20, but the Bruins scored four of the next five to win the opener. Two Utah errors and a May kill gave UCLA four set points, and another May kill on attempt number two closed out a 25-21 win. May led the Bruins with six kills in the first, adding four digs, Fleck posted eight digs, McCall had five kills and Lane added four digs. The Bruins out-hit the Utes .214 to .163.
The second set was tied three times, but Utah (11-3) held the lead throughout, winning 25-18. Jacobs was 4-for-5 with no errors in the second, May added four kills and Fleck posted four digs. The Bruins were out-hit .394 to .143. UCLA's biggest lead in set three was two at 5-3, but Utah scored the next three and didn't trail for the rest of the set, winning 25-17. Hadrych was 3-for-4 with no errors, while May added three kills. The Bruins were out-hit .308 to .171. Utah led wire-to-wire in set four to finish off the victory with a 25-10 win. Fleck had five digs in the final set.
The Bruins begin a home-and-home series with USC on Friday at 8 p.m. at the Galen Center. The match will be televised on Pac-12 Networks.