It’s Just Like Old Times for UCLA : NCAA volleyball: Bruin women beat Ohio State in three games and advance to the finals against Cal State Long Beach.

The UCLA women’s volleyball team, having assumed an aura of invincibility in recent weeks, retained it Thursday night in beating Ohio State in an NCAA semifinal match, 15-8, 15-8, 15-5.

The victory, before 4,836 at UCLA’s Pauley Pavilion, was the ninth in a row for the Bruins, and in all nine the team has not dropped so much as one game.

Among those victories was a sweep last week at Palo Alto over top-ranked Stanford, the last team to defeat UCLA.

“Now we’re having fun,” junior hitter Natalie Williams said. “Everyone is finally used to each other, and we’re having fun.”

And suddenly, a team that had struggled through much of the season finds itself one match from winning its second national championship in a row.

The No. 6-ranked Bruins (30-5) will face No. 2 Cal State Long Beach (36-1), which beat No. 5 Louisiana State, 15-13, 6-15, 15-10, 15-13, on Saturday in the tournament finals.

The 49ers, who won the title in 1989, blew 10 match points before finally putting away the Tigers (35-2). Sophomore middle blocker Danielle Scott led the 49ers with a match-high 27 kills. NCAA player of the year Antoinnette White had 23 kills and Christine Romero had 14.

The Tigers, whose offense is second to Long Beach, were led by Angie Miller, who had 26 kills and a match-high 10 blocks. Monique Adams had 19 kills.

Ohio State, despite its 30-3 record and No. 12 ranking, was clearly over-matched.

It actually appeared as though UCLA was toying with the Buckeyes.

“We came out with the intent of overpowering them at the net,” UCLA Coach Andy Banachowski said. “It went sort of the way I thought it would go.”

This was a different Banachowski than the puzzled coach who watched the Bruins--the overwhelming favorite to win the title before the start of the season--lose their sixth match a month ago.

But this seems to be the team everyone thought would surface.

Ohio State played the Bruins even for half of the first game, but with the score tied, 8-8, the Bruin hitters took charge of the net and ran off the next seven points for the game.

UCLA opened a 9-1 lead in the second game, and when the Buckeyes closed the gap to 9-8, the Bruins merely turned on their offense again and closed out the game with six consecutive points.

“After that I pretty much felt we had the match in control,” said Williams, whose 18 kills led all players. “I don’t feel they even earned their points. The points they got, we pretty much gave them by making bad choices.”

Williams hit a season-high .586. Only middle blocker Marissa Hatchet, who hit .263, was below .300--and that was better than all but one Ohio State player. The Bruins as a team hit a season-high .423.

The match was pretty much in control after the opening serve.

Ohio State could neither receive the Bruins’ serves nor pass well enough to get its offense on track.

The Buckeyes had trouble digging, passing and getting through UCLA’s bigger front line. Ohio State managed a meager .153 hitting percentage.

“UCLA had a major say in that,” Buckeye Coach Jim Stone said. “They attacked and attacked and put us on the defensive all night. UCLA just had too many big guns.”