Bulldogs Swept by UCLA Thursday

Thursday, September 5

Long Beach, Calif.

9 p.m.

University of Georgia

2-2

UCLA

1-2

Georgia

UCLA

September 05, 2019 | Volleyball

Box Score vs. UCLA Box Score

LONG BEACH, Calif. – The University of Georgia women's volleyball team dropped a three-set decision to UCLA Thursday evening to open play at the Long Beach State Tournament (26-28, 12-25, 21-25).

The Bulldogs (2-2) distributed the ball well in the match as three Georgia attackers finished with six or more kills including seven each from junior Rachel Ritchie and sophomore Kayla Rivera. Defensively, junior libero Kendall Glover led the team with 14 while freshman Kacie Evans eclipsed the double-digit mark for the first time, finishing with 10.

"We're disappointed with the outcome," said head coach Tom Black. "I thought we had some opportunities in sets one and three but couldn't quite capitalize in the end. We had some good lessons to learn. … I thought Meghan (Donovan) was working really hard to attack what they were giving us. I thought we had some good moments offensively and moments that we've got to get better."

An early 5-0 run by the Bulldogs forced UCLA (1-2) to use a quick timeout in the opening stanza. Later, with Georgia up four, the Bruins rattled off four unanswered to force a timeout from Georgia. The Bruins took a lead by a couple points, holding the Bulldogs. With UCLA set point, a kill and an ace by Kianna Young tied it up at 24. The teams went back and forth late in the first set, but UCLA prevailed, 28-26. Ritchie led the Bulldog attackers with five kills in the set.

Despite a hot start to the second set by the Bulldogs, UCLA quickly took the lead and rolled to a set two victory, 25-12.

Once again in the third set, Georgia came out strong, forcing an early UCLA timeout up 7-3. Georgia managed to keep the Bruins at bay for a while longer before a 4-0 run gave UCLA the lead, 17-16. Tied at 20, the Bruins took five of the next six points to complete the sweep, 25-21.

Georgia is back in action Friday evening against host Long Beach State. First serve is set for 10 p.m., ET/7 p.m., PT, from Walter Pyramid.