CORAL GABLES, Fla. \u2013 The UCLA women\u2019s volleyball team rolled to a convincing straight\u2011sets win over Miami on Friday night inside Knight Sports Complex,<\/p>\n
Set scores were 25-20, 25-20, 25-23.<\/p>\n
In the first\u2011ever meeting between the programs, the Bruins (3-1) controlled all three frames to secure their second sweep in their opening four matches of the 2026 campaign. UCLA posted a season\u2011best .310 hitting percentage and delivered seven service aces, applying steady pressure from the service line throughout the night.<\/p>\n
Freshman middle blocker Brooke Harwood<\/a> delivered another standout performance, piling up a game\u2011high 13.0 points behind 12 kills at a blistering .688 clip, adding two blocks and committing just one error.<\/p>\n In her first start as UCLA\u2019s setter, Ava Sarafa<\/a> was outstanding, distributing 32 assists with six digs while guiding the Bruins to their most efficient offensive outing of the season.<\/p>\n Ava Utterback<\/a> continued her strong early\u2011season form, reaching double\u2011digit kills for the third time in four matches with 10 kills at .300. In the back row, Vivian Hickman<\/a> anchored the defense with a team\u2011high nine digs and added two aces.<\/p>\n Marianna Singletary<\/a> provided a steady two\u2011way presence, finishing with seven kills and five blocks to round out a balanced, composed team performance. Mija Bendziute<\/a> was also highly productive with five kills at an efficient .417 percentage while getting involved in four blocks.<\/p>\n UCLA fell behind early in the opening frame, dropping three of the first four points before responding with a four\u2011point surge fueled by a Harwood kill and an Utterback ace to jump in front. Miami (0-3) countered with a 6-0 run to take an 11-7 lead and force an early Bruin timeout, but Singletary steadied things out of the break with a pair of momentum\u2011shifting blocks. Trailing by three at the media timeout, UCLA came out sharp when Utterback and Harwood each converted on their swings, and Vivian Hickman<\/a> delivered a clutch ace to level the set at 15-15. The Bruins then seized control by winning five of the next seven rallies, with Harwood catching fire for two more kills to push the margin to 20-17 and trigger a Miami timeout. Harwood finished with five kills in the frame, and UCLA dominated from the service line with five aces to close out a composed 25-20 opening\u2011set win.<\/p>\n Singletary and Bendziute teamed up for back\u2011to\u2011back roofs to spark a 3-0 Bruin burst in the early stages of the second set, pushing UCLA out in front. A five\u2011point surge soon followed to build an 11-5 cushion, but Miami responded with a steady push of its own to level the frame at 14-14. The Bruins regained control out of the media break, piecing together a 5-0 run behind two Utterback swings to take a 19-14 lead. The hosts answered with a 3-0 spurt to force a UCLA timeout, but Utterback delivered the kill for a crucial sideout to halt the momentum. Singletary followed with a pair of heavy swings, setting the stage for Urzua and Bendziute to close the door with back\u2011to\u2011back kills and secure the frame, 25-20.<\/p>\n UCLA fell into an early deficit in the third set, but a 3-0 burst pushed the Bruins back in front as the teams traded points through the middle stages. Another 3-0 run, capped by a Hickman ace, gave UCLA a 13-10 edge. Singletary began to assert herself with two kills and a monster roof to make it 19-17, but Miami answered with a 4-0 surge to jump ahead 21-19. The Bruins battled back to 21-21 before the Hurricanes reclaimed the lead at 23-21. Harwood completely took over in the closing stages, smashing three kills and adding a roof to single\u2011handedly fuel a 4-0 closing run, delivering the 25-23 set win and sealing the straight\u2011sets victory to punctuate her outstanding night.<\/p>\n The Bruins will complete the two-match series against Miami tomorrow at 1 p.m. PT inside Knight Sports Complex.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"CORAL GABLES, Fla. \u2013 The UCLA women\u2019s volleyball team rolled to a convincing straight\u2011sets win over Miami on…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":390900,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[123,125,124],"class_list":["post-390899","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-miami","tag-miami","tag-miami-headlines","tag-miami-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/390899","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=390899"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/390899\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/390900"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=390899"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=390899"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=390899"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}