USC women’s volleyball falls flat in finale

Disappointing. Disheartening. Devastating. All the “D” words could aptly describe how the Women of Troy are feeling right now.

With team morale waning after two losses the weekend before, the No. 11 USC women’s volleyball team could have used a win last weekend before heading into postseason play. But in USC’s match last Friday against the No. 10 Bruins (20-10, 9-9 Pac-10), the Women of Troy were swept by their rivals at Pauley Pavilion, leaving them emotionally drained.

The Bruins took the first two sets of the match with relative ease, but hit a wall against USC (16-11, 9-9) in set three, partially due to a key USC substitution. USC coach Mick Haley took out All-American setter Taylor Carico to begin the third set in favor of Kendall Bateman, and the freshman quickly got the Women of Troy out to a sizable lead.

“Bateman got us in-system; for some reason we couldn’t do that with Taylor,” Haley said. “Kendall came in and got a nice flow going.”

With Bateman setting, USC held a solid lead throughout the set, appearing to mount a comeback. But leading 24-19, USC couldn’t close the Bruins out, allowing seven straight points to allow UCLA to steal the set and, with it, the match.

“We had a really good feeling about what we were doing up to the 24th point,” Haley said. “Then Bateman started playing not to lose.”

“She’s only a freshman,” the coach pointed out, “so that was a tight spot there. I wanted her to know she didn’t lose that game [for us].”

UCLA’s Ali Daley was virtually unstoppable, posting a match-high 15 kills and a team-high 13 digs while hitting .314 for the match. When asked why she was able to perform at such a high level, Daley had a simple answer:

“Scouting,” she said. “I really focused on looking for their holes and tendencies, all the way down to the libero, which way she moves when she’s digging you.

“We really, really focused in on them.”

After such an emotional victory on senior night, the atmosphere in the Bruin locker room after the match was euphoric, Daley said.

“We had music blaring, we were all jumping around. We went through two songs of that. I think we played ‘Backstreet’s Back’ for some reason… It just came on, I have no idea how. But it could have been any song; we would have been loud anyway.”

In the visitor’s locker room, the atmosphere was anything but cheerful. After an extended postgame chat, the Women of Troy emerged from the locker room looking beleaguered and somber.

Still, Haley maintained that his speech focused on the team’s future, not the UCLA match, since it was already in the past.

“We start the NCAA tournament next week and we have to get this fixed somehow. What we’re trying to do is figure out how to get our confidence and focus back.

“Obviously this is a very good team, but to lose like that is totally devastating for the players,” he said.

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