The UCLA Bruins came into the Pete Maravich Assembly Center Saturday with hopes of avenging their first-ever loss against the LSU Tigers on Friday. They did just that. First-year head coach Alfee Reft led his Bruin team to a 3-2 victory over head coach Tonya Johnson and the Tigers.

After a nail-biting five sets of volleyball, the Bruins topped LSU in the fifth set 15-6 to walk away with the win. Across the match, UCLA tallied 55 kills and 49 assists off a 0.291 hitting percentage. The Bruins also added 52 digs and six aces.

Even with LSU’s 56-kill performance and 64 digs, the Tigers halted themselves with a hitting percentage of 0.188 after committing 28 errors, which is double the amount of UCLA errors. Johnson said the team as a whole needs to work on blocking technique, as the Bruins led with 10 blocks over LSU’s seven.

“I think we just need to play,” Johnson said. “We need to let go of our mistakes and just go out and compete. We can’t change anything that has happened. We need to learn how to play in the present. [UCLA] put a little pressure on with their serve, and we didn’t respond to that.”

There were some highlights in the Tiger gameplay, though. With 12 aces, LSU attacking from the service line propelled it to success in sets one and three. Five LSU players had multiple aces; libero Erin Carmichael and right side hitter Jade Demps tied with three aces to lead the Tigers.

“We’ve got to keep the pressure on teams. I think it’s one of our better skillsets this year,” Johnson said. “We’ve got to be able to use that as a weapon for us, and I think at times we did today, and then other times, we let them off the hook easy.”

Another bright spot for the Tigers was, once again, star freshman Jurnee Robinson. In her second collegiate appearance, Robinson dropped another 20-kill performance off 47 swings, the most by any player on the court.

“I thought Jurnee played as well as Jurnee could play today,” Johnson said. “[She] hit .277 with 23 kills.” 

“I think she’s really awesome,” Demps said. “I’ve gotten to know her in just a little bit of time, but she’s a great teammate. She’s a great player. I really enjoy playing with her.”

Even with Robinson’s best efforts, the rest of the offensive production was lacking. The player with the second-most swings on LSU’s side of the net drops off to 34; 13 less than the number of swings Robinson took. What the Tigers are looking for is more termination from the second outside hitter, Sanaa Dotson. After struggling through sets one and two, Dotson was pulled out of the game until the third set.

“I thought Sanaa started out really slow,” Johnson said. “I think she got very passive aggressive, and I need her to stay aggressive in order for us to do what we want to do. I pulled her out just so she could take a breather and think about things for a little bit, then I put her back in and I thought she was locked in.”

Moving forward, Demps said she’s ready for the team to move past this loss and focus on the competition ahead of them.

“I’m looking forward to us getting to the point where we are just competing day in and day out,” Demps said. “When we get to that point, and when we are at the point where we’re just wanting to bury opponents, it’s going to be awesome.”
The Tigers are on the road for their next match as they travel to Omaha, Nebraska, for the Bluejay Invitational. LSU will face Northern Iowa, Creighton and Ball State on Friday, Sept. 1; Saturday, Sept. 2; and Sunday, Sept. 3, respectively.

“I think this weekend shows the type of team that we’re capable of being, but from a mentality standpoint, we have to get tougher. Especially when the match gets on the line like it did today,” Johnson said.