Page One

Cal kept pace with No. 7 UCLA for one game on Friday night, but the Bears couldn’t sustain the momentum, losing to the Bruins in four games, 8-15, 15-9, 15-4 and 15-7. 

Confidence on Cal’s bench soared as the Bears captured game one on a kill by sophomore outside hitter Leah Young. After Cal rattled off 10 straight points to end the first game, UCLA quickly bounced back and won the first six points of game two, eventually winning the game on the way to closing out the match. 

“After game one, we knew we were able to play with them physically,” Cal head coach Rich Feller said. “Being able to play with teams like that emotionally is what we still have to strive for.” 

Senior outside hitter Alicia Perry led the Bears with 13 kills and 17 digs. Freshman Gabrielle Abernathy recorded 12 kills and junior Candace McNamee 

added 26 assists. 

“We just need to pass the ball better,” Perry said. “We were all out intense in the first game, but then we might have been a little overconfident and we let down.” 

Playing a match against the No. 7 women’s volleyball team in the country is a daunting task in and of itself. Add to that the fact that UCLA is the defending Pac-10 champion, they own an 8-3 record this season and they have never lost to Cal, winning 39 straight meetings dating back to 1980. 

For all practical purposes, UCLA was probably looking past Cal and to their Sept. 23 matchup against No. 11 Stanford. 

The Bears’ aggressive defense gave the Bruins reason to focus on the game at hand.  

“They definitely played better than we had seen them play on film,” said UCLA head coach Andy Banachowski. “It was a wake up call for us here tonight.” 

Wins haven’t come easy for the 5-4 Cal team this season, especially in their last three outings. Last week, the Bears played more than six hours of volleyball in their two five-game matches against Oregon and Oregon State.  

“I don’t think we played enough tonight to have a stamina be a factor. There might have been some mental fatigue, getting beat two straight games is pretty tough,” Feller said. “I think we started losing focus.” 

The Bears host No. 5 USC Saturday night before hitting the road for five straight matches against Pac-10 teams, including an Oct. 10 meeting against Stanford.