Box Score

Despite a valiant effort, the Northeastern volleyball team had its four-game unbeaten streak curbed and suffered its first setback of the season in a 3-0 loss (21-25, 18-25, 21-25) to No. 3-ranked UCLA on Friday night.

The Huskies owned the lead over the defending national champions in all three sets, but the Bruins' attacked at a vigorous clip of .343 and ultimately claimed victory in NU's first game of the UCSB Invitational in Santa Barbara, Calif.

Sophomore Jillian Briner recorded a season-best and match-high 13 kills and finished with an astounding hitting percentage of .556. The Oak Park, Ill., native finished second on the club with 14 assists and third with six digs. Third-year hitter Kelly Bacon tossed down 20 kills with a game-best three service aces. For the fifth-straight outing, sophomore libero Natalia Skiba directed Northeastern's defensive efforts with a match-high 20 digs.

Despite their length up front, UCLA outperformed the Huskies in overall blocks, 13.5 to 2.5. Northeastern topped the Bruins, categorically, in kills (43-41), total attempts (113-99), assists (40-39) and digs (45-36).

Northeastern was ahead early in the first set, 4-2, thanks to a block assist from juniors Nichole Kurz and Ina Kamenova, but the Huskies coughed up the edge with a pair of attacking errors and cinched it up, 4-4. The Huskies kept within striking distance in the first frame after junior Janelle Tucker bashed the ball through the middle to keep it 11-8, but the Bruins went on a 6-2 run and never looked back. After leading 17-10, UCLA's Karsta Lowe picked up the point on a kill and triggered some NU errors to close the first set out, 25-21.

Briner and Kamenova gave the Huskies hope early in the second as the Sofia, Bulgaria native set Briner up at the net with a pair of kills. Bacon followed suit and Northeastern led 3-0 to initiate the second stanza. UCLA closed it up with a 6-3 run capped by a Tabi Love kill to tie it up, 6-6. The Huskies recaptured a two-point lead with a Love error and Tucker kill, in that order, but the Bruins rattled off the next four points to take a 10-8 lead and they never looked back.

Tucker would inch the Huskies to within two once more, 12-10, but an 8-3 Bruins' advantage in the next 11 exchanges put seven points between UCLA and NU, 20-13. From that point on, each club managed five points, but that was all the Bruins needed to claim the second set, 25-18.

Just as the second set started, Briner and Bacon teamed up for a quick two-point Huskies' edge, 3-1, to get things underway in the third frame. Bacon would blast back-to-back kills and Briner's ace yielded a four-point buffer for Northeastern. Bacon followed with one of her three aces on the night to force a Bruins' time as the Huskies led, 11-6. Tucker maintained the five-point buffer with a kill from Briner, but NU's advantage slowly started to slip away. UCLA chipped away with a 6-1 run and eventually tied things up, 13-13.

Briner and Bacon would not relent and continued to fire back at the Bruins to regain a three-point lead, 17-14. Senior captain Nicole Bishop chalked up two of her six kills, consecutively, to push Northeastern closer to a set three triumph, 19-15, but UCLA won 10 of the next 12 points to clinch the match with a third set win, 25-21. Northeastern finished with five attacking errors in the last six plays of the game.

The Huskies continue along with the UCSB Invitational tomorrow, Saturday, with a pair of games against host UC Santa Barbara and Idaho, respectively, at 2 p.m. (EST) and 8 p.m. (EST). Northeastern closes out its west coast swing with a neutral game against Cal Poly on Sunday at 3 p.m. (EST).

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