GAINESVILLE, Fla. -- For the past few weeks, the volleyball team has been a boulder rolling downhill, picking up speed and crushing anything in its way.
The Blue Devils had won eight straight matches, dropping only four sets along the way, while winning up the Atlantic Coast Conference championship and a second-round NCAA tournament match.
When the rock finally rolled down to Gainesville, Fla., for the NCAA South Regional, it hit a wall -- a big wall. The wall was UCLA, and on Thursday, the Bruins showed Duke why they have been invited to the post-season tournament every year since 1970. UCLA dismantled Duke 15-3, 15-3, 15-4 in the Blue Devils' second-straight appearance in the Sweet 16.
"I felt that we were bigger, quicker and more powerful than Duke," UCLA head coach Andy Banachowski said. `We had an outstanding offensive night."
The statistics agreed with Banachowski, as the Bruins simply outperformed Duke in every aspect of the game. The Blue Devils appeared to be flat after their impressive straight-set win over Georgia last weekend, but it was evident that UCLA was on a mission -- the Bruins also blew past Houston in Friday night's regional final.
UCLA beat Houston 15-5, 15-7, 15-12 to earn a trip to the Final Four.
"They certainly played better than any team we played this year," Duke head coach Jon Wilson said.
Duke's defense, despite leading the nation in digs, turned out to be no match for the height and power of UCLA's front line. Six-three Alyson Randick, 6-0 Kim Krull and 5-11 Pac-10 Player of the Year Annett Buckner led the Bruins to a .476 match hitting percentage, their highest of the season.
Especially impressive was Randick, who tallied 10 kills in just 12 attempts with no errors for an astronomical .833 hitting percentage.
"We tried to go away from where they were," Randick said of Duke's defense. "Sometimes it works, and sometimes it doesn't. Tonight it worked."
UCLA seemed to be able to place the ball at will. Even if a Duke player reached it, the ball often came in with such force that the dig-attempt ended up out-of-bounds, in the stands or back over the net to another UCLA hitter.
"I don't really know what happened," Duke senior Ashley Wacholder said. "I think they had a lot of ideal situations where they got one-on-one blocking."
It was a stark contrast to Duke's offense, as the Blue Devils never could get going. Duke hit .108 for the match, including a lowly -.160 in the first game. Duke is unlike typical West Coast teams in that it uses angles and off-speed shots to outmaneuver the defense. UCLA, however, was up to the challenge, as it recorded 42 digs and six blocks to stymie the Blue Devil offense all night.
UCLA started off the games with leads of 9-1, 14-1, and 10-0, respectively. Duke showed flashes of brilliance in each set, but it couldn't put together enough to make much of a difference.
"We just couldn't break into the clusters of points," Wilson said.
Despite the rough ending to the season, the year was a success for the Blue Devils. Duke won its fourth NCAA tournament match ever, a crowd-pleasing home match against Georgia on Dec. 3.
"We've had a tremendous season," Wilson said. "We need to put this [loss] in perspective with all of the good things we've accomplished."
Duke finished the season 24-6, giving the four seniors -- Adrian Nicol, Briar Blach, Tami Peterson and Wacholder -- a career record of 104-21 to go along with their four ACC championships.
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