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UCLA Advances with Sweep of Defending National Champs
UCLA 3, Penn State 0 - Recap and Quotes
LEXINGTON,
Ky. – The No. 9 seed UCLA Bruins used a dominating effort from begging
to end to claim a 3-0 (25-20, 25-22, 25-21) win over four-time
defending National Champion and No. 8 seed Penn State at the NCAA
Volleyball Lexington Regional on Friday at Memorial Coliseum.
The
win advances the Bruins to the regional finals against the winner of
Kentucky and No. 1 seed Texas on Saturday at 4:30 p.m. ET inside
Memorial Coliseum. UCLA is now 8-4 all-time against Penn State,
including a 5-1 mark in NCAA Tournament play.
The Bruins
were led in the match by junior outside hitter Rachael Kidder and
sophomore outside hitter Kelly Reeves, who posted 15 and 11 kills,
respectively. Senior libero/defensive specialist Lainey Gera led the
Bruins in digs with 15, while Reeves was second on the team with 11.
Senior setter Lauren Van Orden paced the team in assists with a match
high 46.
The Nittany Lions had three players earn
double-figure kills, including a team-high 12 from freshman outside
hitter Aiyana Whitney. Freshman setter Micha Hancock had a team high 38
assists.
UCLA is 27-6 on the year, while the Nittany Lions end the season at 25-8.
UCLA Head Coach Michael Sealy
Opening statement…
“It’s
great for us. I was telling the girls going into the match that the key
was ball control. They are a physical team. We were really concerned
about (Micha) Hancock’s jump serves. I’ve seen video of her just
rattling off points and she actually just scored one real point all
night, when we called a timeout and she used the jump float. We took
the most impressive weapon I’ve seen all year and our passers really
neutralized that with the ball control.”
On the key to their victory…
“I
think the biggest thing was that we were able to get the matchups we
wanted. Volleyball is a very unique sport in the sense that I can
choose to start six different rotations. It’s not like in basketball
where you say, ‘Hey you just got beat four times pick up this guy now.’
I knew that with her lefty jump serve they were always going to start
her as one of the first serves so we’re able to spin our dial and put
Rachael (Kidder) on (Ariel) Scott and get better matchups. If we had a
poor matchup tonight it could have been an 0-3 loss, easy.”
On preparation for the next game…
“For
the players it will be a lot of sleep and relaxation. Our staff has to
watch this next game like cramming for a final. We have to look at
these two teams and put together a scouting report.”
On if he expected to win 3-0…
“I
just didn’t think about it. That was the one thing. Of course I am a
coach so I am a professional worrier. It was just a quiet presence, we
were just kind of in the zone. Even with our travel agent back at UCLA,
of course they don’t want to talk to you about if you lose and you have
to leave early and start talking about flights. I remember looking at
that text. It was just this numb, quiet place.”
#2 Kelly Reeves, Sophomore, Outside Hitter
On her thoughts of the match…
“First
of all Penn State is a great team so give them credit, but we executed
well tonight. We were just calm and having fun out there. We were just
playing volleyball. It was a great match and we had fun. It was a good
win for us.”
#11 Rachael Kidder, Freshman, Outside Hitter
On her thoughts of the match…
“I
think that game proves how much of a team sport this is. We definitely
had each others’ backs the whole time. We knew we were going to get
blocked a lot. Those girls are very big, but we covered each other very
well. Our passers controlled all of their serves well and made it easy
for our front row.”
On putting an end to Penn State’s four-year run…
“It
feels nice. We aren’t going to focus on that too much, but we
definitely talked about how cool it would be to be the ones who finally
put an end to their run. It feels good.”
Penn State Head Coach Russ Rose
Opening statement …
“I
would first like to commend UCLA on just being better at the most
important serve-pass component of the game. I thought they played
really well, and they did the things I thought they were going to do.
They are an exceptional ball-handling team, and they dug out a lot of
balls. We really struggled in the serving and passing part of the game.
I think we had a couple of flashes where we had some chances in each of
the games to close the gap, and get us in a little better position, but
in each of those cases, UCLA was up to the task with being able to make
the play and then put the pressure on us from the end line. (UCLA) was
what I thought they would be. I’m a little disappointed with how we did
some things tonight, but I’m not disappointed in the kids. I thought
especially with the run this program has had over the last couple of
years that it would be really shallow of us not to say anything but
good things about how UCLA played.”
On what he will remember about the run of four National Championships …
“I
think many of the players that were part of those championship teams
are all playing professionally right now. I thought each time a team
was weakened by graduation, that you would hope that some of the
younger players would pick up some of those things and I think there
were some lessons passed along, but there were times where we had three
freshman in the front row and three freshman in the back row and I
think that’s a learning curve. UCLA didn’t have very many errors, and
we were averaging about eight a game. When you start putting yourself
in that situation, against a team that is making three to four errors a
game, that’s where you are going to win and lose. We were minus eight
in serving and passing. We needed to do better. We knew we needed to
serve well to keep the ball in play. They were really well coached, and
the volleyball IQ thing that I alluded to yesterday. We had a great
stretch where we were able to counter other people like that. We have
some young kids.”
On the future of this program …
“I’ll
have to get back to you on that. I have some things I have to think
about myself. I think it was a great run that we had over the last
couple of years, and there are some great kids coming in that are
talented.”
#14 Aiyana Whitney, Freshman, Outside Hitter
On her thoughts of the game…
“I
feel like we struggled a lot with things that we have consistently
struggled with. We weren’t able to make the adjustments we needed to
make from the start. I am still proud to play with the girls. It didn’t
go in our favor, but it happens.”
#1 Ariel Scott, Sophomore, Middle Hitter
On her thoughts of the game…
“I
mean I have to agree with what (Aiyana Whitney) said. We didn’t make
the adjustments that we needed to make. They played to their strengths,
which is serving and passing, and we necessarily didn’t play to our
strengths. We definitely had way too many errors.”
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