COLLEGE VOLLEYBALL : UCLA Women Extend Their Streak Over USC

In what may have been the best opportunity in several years for the USC women’s volleyball team to finally defeat UCLA, the Bruins stopped the Trojans on Saturday night.

The scores were 15-13, 15-7, 15-9, before 1,240 in a key Pacific 10 Conference match at USC’s Lyon Center.

Jenny Johnson had 17 kills and Annett Buckner had 16 to lead UCLA to its 11th consecutive victory over USC, dating to 1987.

Before the match, eighth-ranked USC had upset then top-ranked Stanford on Sept. 17 and currently top-ranked Long Beach State on Wednesday. Second-ranked UCLA, 10-0 and 5-0 in the conference, is in first place in the Pac-10 and USC (9-3, 3-2) is tied for second.

“I felt like we were going to play for (the victory), and I felt like we didn’t,” said Lisa Love, fifth-year Trojan coach who has never defeated UCLA.

But Andy Banachowski, 27-year UCLA coach, was not surprised by the victory because the Trojans have been inconsistent this season, having lost at unranked Oregon State on Sept. 24.

“To be honest, they were having a good match, then a bad match,” Banachowski said about the Trojans’ season.

“I was hoping that since they had a good match against Long Beach that they would have a bad match against us.”

This proved to be true as UCLA outblocked the Trojans, 13-5, and outhit them, .352-.276.

USC took a 4-0 lead in the first game, which lasted more than 40 minutes, but UCLA came back to tie, 8-8. The Bruins then went on a 6-2 scoring run, but the Trojans held them there. UCLA took nine game-point attempts, including four service errors, and USC got back into the game, 14-13. Finally, setter Julie Bremner and outside hitter Kim Krull reached up for a successful block on the right side to seal the game.

UCLA took a 9-0 lead in the second game, but Love made some substitutions and USC went on a seven-point run. UCLA scored the next six points behind Buckner’s block and four kills to win the game.

With UCLA trailing, 8-6, in the third game, Alyson Randick came up with two big blocks and Johnson had a kill to put UCLA ahead for good as the Bruins scored their 26th consecutive Pac-10 victory.