Bruins ready to rumble at 2011 NCAA National Semi-finals: Volleyball News
The 9th seeded women’s volleyball team from California University (UCLA) is scheduled to take on Number 12 Florida State in the national semi-finals on Thursday, December 15. The city of San Antonio will provide the back drop for this important
match-up. UCLA is going to make its 12th appearance at the national semi-finals and is determined to overcome the Seminoles.
It has been a while since the two teams have met on centre court. They had their last meeting in 1996, when UCLA Bruins defeated the Seminoles. Overall, UCLA has better record of victories against Florida State.
This year, the Bruins made their 30th appearance at the NCAA tournament and advanced to the Regional round for the first time since 2008. In the regional semi-finals, they were challenged by Penn State. The Nittany Lions of Penn State could not
hinder the performance of Bruins and the California squad earned a spot in the regional finals. Next up, the UCLA had a daunting task of beating the top-seeded Texas Longhorns in the regional final match. The ladies around head coach Michael Sealy put up a
good show and dismantled the power of the tough Texas team. Success at the regional round allowed UCLA to qualify for the national semi-finals.
Bruins have strong team roster which features players such as Rachael Kidder, Bojana Todorovic, Lainey Gera, Mariana Aquino, and Lauren Van Orden. All these athletes have tremendous amount of accomplishments to their names. They helped the team to produce
13th straight 20-win season. On the offensive side, the Bruins remained 16-0 with hitting percentage of .260 or better. Likewise on the defence side, they did exceptionally well and held their opponents under a .200 hitting percentage in 24 matches
of the regular season.
In the next match against Florida State tomorrow, the Bruins will heavily rely on junior Rachael Kidder who maintained her second-place spot among Pac-12 players in kills by adding 4.63 kills per set in the season. Junior Bojana Todorovic will serve a great
option for Bruins, to produce powerful serves. Todorovic has the ability to supply plenty of power to the ball and land it in the gaps. Lainey Gera is known for her great reception. In the regular season, she averaged 4.91 digs per set. When it comes to provide
assistance to other players, no one can do a better job than setter Lauren Van Orden. She is fifth in assists per set (10.96), which is quite considerable. Sophomore Mariana Aquino is the top attacker in UCLA squad, who is ranked eighth in hitting percentage
(.332). Outside hitter, Kelly Reeves will spark on the centre court.
Michael Sealy, the head coach of Bruins, is very confident and hoping to win the match against Florida State.
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