Oct. 18, 1997

No.5 Women's Volleyball Slips By No.22 Bruins

LOS ANGELES - The No.22 ranked UCLA Women's Volleyball Team fell just short of an upset as it took cross-town rival No. 5 ranked USC to five games before falling 15-6, 4-15, 15-11, 14-16, 15-11 Saturday night in Pauley Pavilion.

USC's Jasmina Marinkovic led the match with a career-high 31 kills as she hit .500 during the night. Alaina Kipps contributed big time for the Women of Troy as she posted a career-high 14 blocks. Jennifer Kessy ended the night with 19 kills including the decisive one for match point.

UCLA was led by Kara Milling's 23 kills and a career-high 18 kills from Tamika Johnson.

The Bruins honored the 25 greatest players in UCLA women's volleyball history and also the first women's championship won by the school in a between games ceremony as a crowd of 1,703 enjoyed the always intense rivalry between these two teams.

USC head coach Lisa Love commented after the match, "Whenever you play UCLA, it is a brwal. There's no records, no national rankings, no Pac-10 records. It's just about the fight."

USC improved to 15-2 overall and 7-2 in the Pac-10. UCLA fell to 9-7 overall and 4-5 in conference action. Both teams host the Washington and Washington State series next weekend.