No. 15 Bruins Face Home-and-Home Series With USC
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Match 17
Friday, March 19
No. 15 UCLA at USC
8 p.m.
Galen Center
Los Angeles, Calif.
TV: Pac-12 Network National and Los Angeles
Live Stats
Match 18
Sunday, March 21
USC at No. 15 UCLA
4:30 p.m.
Pauley Pavilion presented by Wescom
Los Angeles, Calif.
TV: Pac-12 Network National and Los Angeles
Live Stats
NO. 15 UCLA TAKES ON USC IN HOME-AND-HOME SERIES
The 15th-ranked Bruins travel to USC on Friday at 8 p.m. before hosting the Trojans on Sunday at 4:30 p.m. at Pauley Pavilion presented by Wescom. Both matches will be televised on Pac-12 Networks.
FAN ADVISORY
Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, fans are unable to attend matches at Pauley Pavilion presented by Wescom.
WHAT'S NEXT?
The Bruins host their final matches of the 2020-2021 season next weekend against Oregon State. Match one will be Friday, March 26 at 6 p.m. and match two will be Sunday, March 28 at 12 p.m. Both contests will feature a live stream on UCLABruins.com.
BRUINS ON PAC-12 NETWORKS FOUR TIMES
UCLA will be on Pac-12 Networks four times during the remainder of the regular season. Those matches include at USC on March 19 (8 p.m.), at home versus USC on March 21 (4:30 p.m.) and at Stanford on April 2 (8 p.m.) and April 4 (2 p.m.).
SCOUTING THE USC TROJANS
USC (3-7), which has missed six matches this season due to injury and COVID concerns, has won a four-set match at Oregon State and a pair of four-set contests at California, falling once to OSU and twice to both Oregon, Utah and Washington. The Trojans are averaging 11.55 kills, 1.48 aces, 12.05 digs and 1.74 blocks per set, hitting .211 as a team. Senior Brooke Botkin leads the team with 3.54 kills per set, while sophomore Kalen Owes is second at 2.55 kps. Junior Raquel Lazaro handles the setting duties and is posting 9.11 assists per set. Freshman Sam Hastings is first with 2.87 digs per set, while senior Candice Denny and sophomore Aleksandra Gryka are both recording 0.71 blocks per set.
SERIES HISTORY: UCLA VS. USC
The Bruins lead the all-time series against USC 66-59, winning both matches in 2019, claiming a five-set win in Westwood and a sweep at the Galen Center. UCLA is 30-25 at home against USC and 26-22 on the road.
MAY RANKINGS
Senior Mac May, the 29th Bruin to surpass 1,000 kills for her career, the 19th to reach 100 aces and the 13th to do both, continues to rise up the UCLA charts. May reached the 1,400-kill mark last weekend and has 1,407 for her career, which is 15th in Bruin history. Next up on the list are Karsta Lowe (14th, 1,422), Rachael Kidder (13th, 1,442) and Kaitlin Sather (12th, 1,501). In the aces department, May has a team-best 25 this season and 128 for her career. She is tied for 11th place, with Patty Orozco (10th, 129) and Ann Boyer (9th, 136) next up.
MORE NOTES
--The Bruins lead all Pac-12 Conference teams in assists per set (12.93) and kills per set (13.84), are third in digs per set (14.69) and fourth in hitting percentage (.240). Nationally, UCLA is 25th in aps and 35th in kps.
--The Bruins are 7-0 on Fridays this year. UCLA is 7-0 when winning the fourth set of a match and 8-0 when hitting .250 or better.
--Senior Mac May is second among Pac-12 players in points (4.93) and kills (4.25) per set, coming in at 34th and 41st nationally in those two categories. May has reached 20 kills three times, including a season-best 24 at Oregon (Jan. 29), and has double figures in 15 of 16 matches. Ranking fourth in the Pac-12 in aces per set (0.41), May had three aces in back-to-back matches against ASU (Feb. 21) and Arizona (Feb. 26), adding three more on Sunday versus Utah. The team leader with 25, she has eight matches this year with at least two aces, with a season high of four against Washington on Feb. 12. May has three double-doubles and has at least seven digs in 12 consecutive matches. She set a career high in digs with 19 versus Washington (Feb. 12). May is also second on the team with 10 block solos, posting three on Friday against Utah and a pair on three occasions.
--Junior Zoe Fleck continues to lead all Pac-12 liberos in digs per set (4.36), and has reached double figures in all 16 matches, posting a season-best 25 against Arizona on Feb. 26. She has surpassed the 20-dig mark three times, also posting 22 at Oregon (Jan. 29) and 21 at Arizona State (Feb. 19). Fleck added 10 assists in the match at Oregon for the first double-double of her career. She enters this week's play with 19 digs in three matches in a row. Behind the service line, Fleck is third with 11 aces, including at least one in eight of the last 13.
--Junior élan McCall had three consecutive double-doubles in the Colorado matches and Friday's win against Utah to give her a team-best six on the season. She was one shy of a season high in kills with 17 last Friday, adding 13 digs, which tied a season best. McCall has seven double-figure kills matches, recording a season-best 18 against Washington on Feb. 12 to go with 12 digs and a season-best five blocks. In the digs department, she has reached double figures nine times, also posting 13 in a match at Colorado on March 5. McCall served a season-high three aces on Feb. 28 against Arizona and has at least one in four of her last five.
--Senior Sabrina Smith has been very efficient in her hitting over the last eight matches, notching 43 kills and only five hitting errors in 89 attempts for a .427 hitting percentage. At Arizona State, she had seven kills and an error in 12 swings on Feb. 19 (.500%), posting a line of 8-0-10 (.800%) on Feb. 21. Smith was a perfect 5-for-5 on Feb. 26 against Arizona and set a career-high with six digs. She was 7-for-16 with no errors (.438) on March 5 at Colorado, adding seven more kills last Friday against Utah. In her last five matches, she has 17 blocks.
--Freshman Kate Lane is second on the team in double-doubles with four, producing another one in Friday's win over Utah with 31 assists and 11 digs. On four occasions, she has set a season high in digs with 11, producing nine in three other matches. Lane's season high in assists came against Washington on Feb. 12 when she had 42. She crossed the 30-mark on Friday versus Utah with 31. Lane is second on the team with 12 aces, posting four against Arizona on Feb. 26. She also had two at Arizona State (Feb. 19) and has at least one in eight of her last 10.
--Freshman Iman Ndiaye posted her fourth double-figure kills match of the season with 11 at Colorado on March 5. Her season high came at Arizona State on Feb. 21 when she hit a career-best .529. In the previous match at ASU, Ndiaye was 8-for-16 with no errors (.500).
--Freshman Audrey Pak has at least 15 assists in all nine appearances, producing a season-best 28 at Arizona State on Feb. 19 to go with a season-high eight digs. She is 10th among Pac-12 setters in assists per set (6.16). Pak had three matches in a row with an ace, including two at Colorado on March 5.
--Freshman Allison Jacobs equaled a season high with 13 kills on Feb. 26 against Arizona. She has three matches with 13 kills and three others with 10. Jacobs has a pair of double-doubles against California (Jan. 22) and Washington State (Feb. 4), and three double-figure digs contests. She has at least two blocks in nine matches in a row, including a season-high four on March 7 at Colorado.
--Redshirt junior Emily Ryan has at least five blocks in seven of 13 matches, setting a season high with seven at Oregon on Jan. 29. Her 11 block solos are tops on the team, and she ranks sixth among Pac-12 players in blocks per set (1.16). Offensively, Ryan had 12 kills in the match at Oregon, adding 10 more in a win over Washington on Feb. 12 and 10 on March 7 at Colorado. She ranks seventh in the conference in hitting (.310).
--Redshirt freshman Anna Dodson had a career-best six blocks in the Feb. 26 match against Arizona. She has earned four starts this season, including March 5 in her home state of Colorado ... redshirt sophomore Lexi Hadrych, in just her third match of the season, recorded a season-high six kills on Sunday against Utah ... redshirt sophomore Tristin Savage earned the start on Friday and posted her first three kills of the season, adding two blocks.