UCLA Faces California, No. 8 Stanford in Final Home Matches
LOS ANGELES – The UCLA women's volleyball team closes its home schedule at Pauley Pavilion presented by Wescom this week against California and No. 8 Stanford. The Bruins (13-10, 7-7 Pac-12), who are riding a three-match winning streak, will play the Golden Bears (7-17, 0-14) on Thursday, Nov. 10 at 7 p.m. and the Cardinal on Saturday, Nov. 12 at 4:30 p.m. PT. UCLA will honor its seniors prior to first serve in its final home contest versus Stanford.
Both matches are available for viewing on the UCLA Live Stream.
UCLA vs. California
Thursday, Nov. 10, 2022 – 7 p.m. PT
Los Angeles, Calif. (Pauley Pavilion presented by Wescom)
Watch: UCLA Live Stream
Talent: Darren Preston
Live Stats: uclalivestats.com
UCLA vs. No. 8 Stanford
Saturday, Nov. 12, 2022 – 4:30 p.m. PT
Los Angeles, Calif. (Pauley Pavilion presented by Wescom)
Watch: UCLA Live Stream
Talent: Denny Cline
Live Stats: uclalivestats.com
Weekend Recap
UCLA swept the season series against Arizona and Arizona State last weekend to get back to .500 in conference play.
• Redshirt junior middle blocker Anna Dodson registered a career-high 15 kills (.478) to lead the Bruins to a 3-1 victory over the Wildcats. Dodson's five blocks also secured a career-high 19.5 points. As a team, the Bruins hit for 55 kills at a .328 hitting percentage and served up 10 aces which was their second most in a match this season.
• Against Arizona State, graduate élan McCall collected a match-high 16 kills and made a miraculous diving effort to help score match in the third set of the Bruins' sweep of the Sun Devils. The Bruins had elite kill numbers in each of the three sets, going 17-19-17. Setter Matti McKissock totaled 42 assists which was her most in a three-set affair this season.
Noting the Bruins
• The Bruins are hitting .234 (13.65 KPS) while their opponents are hitting .191 (11.95 KPS).
• Charitie Luper leads the Bruins with 3.44 kills per set at a .247 clip.
• McCall leads the Bruins with 233 total kills on the season while ranking second on the squad in digs with 204.
• Libero Mackenzie Cole leads UCLA with 3.66 digs per set (300 total digs).
• Setter Matti McKissock leads UCLA with 10.57 assists per set. She currently has 4,917 career assists including her four seasons at Georgia Tech (4,103 AST) and 814 assists so far this season.
Last Time Against the Golden Bears & Cardinal
UCLA swept California on their home court and lost at Stanford in straight sets in its first go-around.
• Against the Golden Bears, Iman Ndiaye led UCLA with 13 kills while Grayce Olson tacked on 10 at a .471 clip in the absences of Dodson and McCall. Mokihana Tufono and Matti McKissock operated a 6-2 system, collecting 22 and 15 assists, respectively. The Bruins won each set decisively, 25-19, 25-22, 25-10, limiting California to no more than eight kills in each frame.
• Against the Cardinal, the Bruins squandered a 16-10 lead in set one and 20-16 lead in set two. Ndiaye scored a team-high 15 kills at .500 while Cheridyn Leverette and Luper each tallied nine kills at .318.
Double-Double Machine
élan McCall has racked up a team-high seven double-doubles this season, including a streak of four straight from Sept. 30-Oct. 9. She has 31 in her career dating back to her freshman year at TCU. McCall has reached double-digit kills in 10 of her last 11 matches. In that span, McCall is one kill shy of the team lead with 139 (Luper 140). This season, McCall has averaged 3.11 kills per set and 2.81 digs per set. Both marks rank second on the team.
1,000 Kills & 1,000 Digs
élan McCall recorded the 1,000th dig of her career on Oct. 2 versus Colorado, and two matches later in the fourth set at Arizona on Oct. 9, picked up her 1,000th career kill. McCall, a 2018 All-Big-12 First Team and 2021 All-Pac-12 First Team honoree, amassed 463 kills in her two seasons at TCU and currently has 619 as a Bruin for a career total of 1,082. Dig wise, at TCU she recorded 394 and currently has 684 at UCLA.
Efficient Anna
Middle blocker Anna Dodson, the Bruins' most efficient attacker this season at a team-best .347 clip, has reach double-digit kills in five consecutive matches and nine total times this season. In that five-match span, Dodson ranks second on the team with 3.71 kills per set and 4,50 points per set. She also established a new career-high in kills (15 at .478) and points (19.5) versus Arizona last weekend.
Savage Mode
Since entering the starting lineup six matches ago on Oct. 14 against Oregon State, Tristin Savage had averaged 1.48 points per set with 0.96 KPS and 0.93 BPS. Savage's start versus the Beavers was her first start in over a season since March 12, 2021 against Utah. Savage stepped up in a big way against Oregon State with a then-career-high six kills and then-career-high five blocks for 8.5 points, tied for second-most on the team. Against Cal on Oct. 23, Savage recorded a career-high eight kills at a .536 clip in addition to five blocks (1 BS, 4 BA) for a career-high 11.0 points. And most recently at Utah, Savage racked up a new career high seven blocks (1 BS, 6 BA).
Air Charitie
Since being reinserted into the starting lineup against Washington on Sept. 25, Charitie Luper has led the Bruins with 3.52 kills per set and 162 total kills over UCLA's last 13 matches. Luper has recorded double-digit kills in nine of those contests and tallied a double-double in four of them. She is up to eight career double-doubles. Luper set a career-high in kills with 25 at Arizona earlier this season on Oct. 9. Last season, Luper ranked second on the squad with 227 kills, averaging 3.39 kills per set despite missing the team's final eight conference matches of the season.
Lineup Changes
The Bruins have trotted out seven eight starting lineups this season, including six different lineups during Pac-12 play alone. UCLA has sent out the same lineup in back-to-back Pac-12 matches only once this season when it played Colorado and Arizona State (Alupei, Cole, Dodson, McCall, McKissock, Ndiaye, Luper) and they have yet to send out the same lineup in a Pac-12 weekend series this season.
Season Highs for McKissock
Most recently, Matti McKissock recorded a season-high in assists for a three-set match with 42 versus Arizona State last Sunday. She also established a season-high 54 assists versus Oregon on Oct. 16. At Colorado on Oct. 28, McKissock also recorded a career-high 20 digs.
Approaching 5,000
Matti McKissock is 83 assists shy of reaching the 5,000 assist mark in her five-year career. Currently, McKissock has 4,917 career assists including her four seasons at Georgia Tech (4,103 AST) and 814 assists so far this season.
California Series History
• UCLA leads the all-time series versus California, 70-9, dating back to 1980.
• The Bruins have won nine out of the last 10 meetings.
Stanford Series History
• Stanford leads the all-time series over UCLA, 55-43, dating back to 1976.
• Stanford owns the advantage over the last 10 meetings, 6-4.
• The Bruins defeated the Cardinal in the 1984 NCAA Championship for their first-ever NCAA title.
• The two programs have split their eight meetings in the NCAA Tournament and have faced off in the NCAA title match three
times: (1984, 1992, 1994).
What's New, Bru?
UCLA has seen eight players make their Bruin debut this season in the form of four transfers (MB Lauren Forte, S Matti McKissock, L Mackenzie Cole and DS Peyton Dueck), three freshmen (OH Grayce Olson, OH Cheridyn Leverette and S Mokihana Tufono) and Katie McCarthy, who redshirted her freshman Fall 2021 season. Of those eight players, five had made at least one start.
Bruins in the Rankings
UCLA enters the 11th week of the season unranked. UCLA has been ranked in the AVCA poll 526 times dating back to 1982, which ranks third most all-time behind Nebraska (582) and Stanford (574). UCLA, coming off its highest conference finish (2nd) since 2016 a season ago, was tabbed to finish third and received one first-place vote in the Pac-12 Preseason Coaches Poll.