Oct. 1, 2010

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PULLMAN, Wash. -- No. 12 UCLA's Dicey McGray and Bojana Todorovic combined for 24 kills as the Bruins swept the Washington State volleyball team with scores of 25-17, 25-16, and 25-17, before 921 fans Friday night at Bohler Gym.

UCLA (11-2 overall, 1-1 Pac-10) hit .262 as a team and needed 76 minutes to put away the Cougars (6-7, 0-3)who struggled offensively and hit .057 for the match.

Meagan Ganzer led WSU with 11 kills and four blocks while Oceana Bush contributed six kills and eight digs. Sara Biondi had 22 assists and the lone Cougar service ace of the match. Brittany Tillman had four kills and three blocks.

UCLA's Mari Hole added eight kills and four blocks while setter Lauren Van Orden had 38 assists and Lainey Gera contributed 17 digs.

"We have to be able to serve tougher and then execute our game plan better, especially against a team that is in the top 15 in the country," Cougar Head Coach Andrew Palileo said. "You can't follow a game plan and then serve them easy balls, and I think we did too much of that tonight. They executed their serving, they served short and on the short serve they tried to mess us up with our faster set. So I think one team executed better than the other."

The Cougars opened the first set strong, keeping up with the Bruins through the first half of the set. UCLA went on a 12 to 4 run to take the first set 25-17 win. Hole led all players with five kills as UCLA hit .239 and held WSU to a .029 hitting percentage. The Cougar team had a slight advantage blocking, 4 to 3.

USC took an early lead in the second set and ran it up to 19-8 when WSU took its second timeout of the set. The Cougars fought back with kills from Bush and Ganzer but could not overcome the Bruins lead. WSU falls 25-16, again hitting a mere .029.

The Cougars hung in the competition early in the third set but could not sustain the level of play as the Bruins took the 25-17 win.

"I thought Conley had a good night tonight and really earned some more playing time for tomorrow," Palileo said. "Just the energy and her serving was pretty good too tonight, so she earned some nice playing time for tomorrow. We'll see what she does when she has more opportunities out there. We have to get passing up there to be more consistent. The defense and serving are really hurting us right now:"

Washington State takes on No. 5 USC (12-1, 1-1) Saturday, Oct. 2, at 7 p.m. in Bohler Gym. The Women of Troy lost a five-set match Friday night in Seattle to No. 10 Washington.