Women's volleyball goes to Northern California for games against Cal, No.1 Stanford

With a sweep of the Washington schools last weekend, the UCLA women’s volleyball team broke even in the Pac-10 standings at 2-2. Trouble is, they could be right back to where they started this weekend.

The next two matches, against UC Berkeley and defending national champion Stanford, could quickly become a step in the wrong direction for the Bruins. Losing both, however, is unlikely; the team is 40-0 against Cal all-time.

Stanford, to put it mildly, is less than beatable. As such, UCLA head coach Andy Banachowski stressed the importance of getting at least a split.

“We can’t afford to get swept again. More importantly, we need to make sure we can win on the road, something we didn’t do at Arizona,” Banachowski said.

Obviously, the team is counting on a victory against Cal. But that is not to say that they’ve given up on beating the Cardinal at Maples Pavilion.

“We go into every game trying to win but there’s going to be some extra urgency against Cal, because we know they’re beatable,” sophomore Heather Cullen said.

Her teammate, Haley Jorgensborg, agrees.

“We have to just know that we’re going to beat them,” she said.

Cal (10-1) is a veteran team that has started this season on a hot streak. The Bruins expect a tough contest in which, ultimately, they will prevail.

And then there is Stanford. This year’s first showdown with the rival Cardinal lacks the usual drama. UCLA, despite being a traditional powerhouse program, is a big underdog. Logan Tom, Stanford’s star player, has led the Cardinal to a 12-1 record. But despite their youth and inexperience, the Bruins are talented and hungry enough to pull off the upset.

“We just need to get on a hot streak,” Banachowski said. “If we play inspired and get after them, we know we can hang with Stanford.”

Perhaps that is more than just wishful thinking. Last year UCLA pushed Stanford to five games while playing without their star, Kristee Porter. In fact, the Bruins jumped out to a 2-0 lead in the match, only to have Stanford rally back to victory.

“This game is all about momentum. We proved that last year. As long as we get momentum on our side, anything can happen,” Cullen said.

If they have nothing else, the Bruins are fiesty. Indeed, the players seem to be relishing this new role of underdog.

“We’re going to go all-out, we’ve got nothing to lose,” Jorgensborg said. “Plus, I think we all really want to stuff-block Logan Tom.”

Both matches will be broadcast via internet radio on uclabruins.com