By Grace Wen

Daily Bruin Senior Staff

In the battle between the Davids and Goliaths of this world, chalk one up for Goliath.

Despite the dueling bands and the noise of 850 people in North Gym, UCLA defeated cross-town rival, USC, 15-5, 15-9, 8-15, 13-15, 15-9 in a five-game thriller that took over two hours to complete.

"I know UCLA is working through some things, but I thought UCLA was a little bit steadier than we were," USC head coach Lisa Love said. "They made fewer errors than we did. It was not a very pretty match. I don't think either coach will walk away and feel very excited about the quality of play."

Excited or not, the Bruins will take the win and improve to 10-3 overall and 3-0 in the Pacific 10. And with two losses in conference play, the Trojans (7-4, 1-2) are searching desperately for a way to stay competitive in the Pac-10 race.

With sophomore outside hitter Chaska Potter sidelined by a skin infection, UCLA got a much-needed lift from first-year player Jennifer Wittenburg. Starting for the first time in her college career, Wittenburg hammered down 14 kills to lead all UCLA hitters.

"It was crazy," Wittenburg said. "It's the UCLA-USC big game. It's the biggest game of the year. I had the chance to start, come in and hopefully do a good job. They said I stepped up like I should've. It was awesome. It was a great feeling."

Apparently unbothered by the raucous USC crowd, the Bruins quickly jumped out to a two-game lead.

"It was weird out there," middle blocker Kim Krull said. "It didn't feel like we were winning by as much as we were. I was amazed every time I looked at the scoreboard. I think we just did a great job siding out and people were serving well."

However, the Bruins were thrown off-balance in the third and fourth games by changes in the Trojan lineup. Love made adjustments at both setter and outside hitter, inserting Laurie Hill and Jeanne Vetter for Janice Mounts and Vesna Dragicevic, respectively. It worked.

"We were tired," UCLA head coach Andy Banachowski said. "I think we felt we sort of had things in control. 'SC made some changes and things were different for us all of a sudden."

Senior middle blocker Kim Krull agreed. "It affects you just because you get used to blocking certain people and their tendencies," Krull said. "And then when it switches, it's like starting a new game and you have to figure it out. It's always kind of awkward at the beginning."

The Bruins began to adjust, however, towards the end of game four. Facing game point and a 8-14 deficit, UCLA sided out on a dump by setter Kim Coleman. After a kill by outside hitter Tanisha Larkin and a Coleman block on Vetter, USC was forced to call time-out. The woes continued, however, as the Trojans committed a hitting error, which was then followed up by an ace by Alison Zamora. The Bruins were only down by three.

USC called their second time-out of the game after Coleman caught the defense off-guard with another dump, bringing UCLA within two points (Coleman would finish the night with eight kills and 44 assists). Although a kill by Krull brought the Bruins within one, the Trojan's Jennifer Kessy fired down a kill of her own to close out the game (Kessy and USC middle blocker Jasmina Marinkovic led all hitters with 21 kills).

However, the fourth-game comeback provided the Bruins with a psychological boost.

"Even though we lost that game, everybody was pretty pumped up because we'd made such a good run at that point," Banachowski said. "We knew we had some momentum going for us. Yeah, we would have loved to steal the fourth game, but (our momentum) carried us over into the fifth."

In game five, the Bruins showed why Volleyball magazine rated this year's recruiting class the best in the nation. Three freshmen started in the front row, led by Wittenburg who won the sideout by crushing the ball for a score on the first point.

After leading 8-5 at the side change, UCLA and USC took turns netting. Krull, who finished with a triple double (13 kills, 12 digs and 10 blocks) drove home a ball to bring the score to 10-7. UCLA never looked back as a kill by Tamika Johnson, a block by Elisabeth Bachman, two kills by Wittenburg, and an error by USC gave UCLA the win.