No. 18 UCLA Earns Sweep at Long Beach State
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LONG BEACH, Calif. - Mac May led the 18th-ranked Bruins (2-0) with 11 kills and Anna Dodson, Allison Jacobs, and Iman Ndiaye added six kills apiece, as UCLA's offense turned in a dominant performance to earn a sweep at Long Beach State (2-2) on Thursday night at Walter Pyramid. Set scores were 25-16, 25-13, 25-21.
May added four digs, four aces, two assists and one block as UCLA improved to 64-19 all-time against LBSU with its 10th-straight win the series. She increased her career total in aces to 137, passing Ann Boyer (136) for 9th in UCLA's all-time history.
Offensively, the Bruins hit .413 for the match, led by .800 hitting (4K, 0E, 5TA) by setter Shelby Martin and middle blocker Francesca Alupei. Martin also added 27 assists, five digs and two blocks while Alupei had four blocks and one dig. Ndiaye hit .455 (6K, 1E, 11TA) with Jacobs right behind at .417 (6K, 1E, 12TA). Ndiaye also contributed two blocks with Jacobs tallying six digs, one block, one assist and one ace. Dodson also added a match-high-tying four blocks to go with four digs and two aces.
Zoe Fleck registered a match-high 11 digs and added an assist for the Bruins while outside hitter élan McCall chipped in one kill, one ace, and one dig.
Long Beach State was led by Kashauna Williams, who had a match-high 16 kills (3E) on 35 swings. She hit .371 for the match and added two blocks and two digs. The Beach hit .253 for the match and were outblocked by the Bruins, 8-4. UCLA also had the advantage in service aces (8-1), service errors (4-13), kills (39-37), and digs (32-26).
The first set was tight at the beginning with 11 ties and two lead changes. The last tie was at 11-11 when the Bruins went on a 6-1 scoring run and never looked back. The run began with a block by Dodson and Ndiaye followed by an ace from McCall. After a sideout by LBSU, Jacobs got a kill for UCLA to make it 14-12. Jacobs then went back to the service line and scored three points, one off an ace and one off a transition kill by May that made it 17-12 Bruins. Both teams traded sideouts until the score was 20-16. But UCLA, behind the tough serving from May, scored the final five points of the opening set for the 25-16 victory.
UCLA, which never trailed by more than a point in any of the three sets, held a slim 10-7 lead in the second set. But a 6-0 scoring run gave the Bruins the distance they needed to cruise to an easy win in the second set. This time it was the tough serving by Dodson that led to the run, which started after she got a kill in the middle for a sideout, and then she served for the final five points. Martin had two kills in the run and Alupei had two block assists (combined with May for one and Martin for the other). May also delivered a kill in the scoring run that put UCLA up decisively, 16-7. The Bruins outscored LBSU 9-6 the rest of the way to claim the second set 25-13.
The final set only featured one time and one lead change, but was the most competitive, thanks to a late rally by the Beach. LBSU took a 1-0 lead in the third on a hitting error by UCLA, but a sideout kill by May, an ace by Dodson, and a transition kill by Alupei, put the Bruins up 3-1 and the Bruins never trailed again. UCLA reached match point after a service error by LBSU made it 24-17. But three transition kills by the Beach to go with a block cut the Bruins' lead to 24-21. UCLA called timeout, settled down, and Ndiaye got the final kill to help the Bruins complete the sweep with a 25-21 win in the third set.
The Bruins are back in action tomorrow, Sept. 3 as they take on Portland State in their second match of the Long Beach State Tournament. The contest is slated to start at 5 p.m. PDT.