This weekend, the Wildcats will face UCLA on Friday, Oct. 12 in Pauley Pavilion and USC on Sunday, Oct. 14 in Galen Center. The Wildcats are currently ranked No. 23, while the Trojans are No. 15. The UCLA Bruins are ranked No. 20. 

After losing to Washington last weekend, the Wildcats are preparing to play in L.A. this week, assistant coach Charita Stubbs said.

“It’s one of those matches we all look forward to playing and get really excited, so it’s a matter of keeping everyone at bay,” Stubbs said. “We have had a lot of success in the past playing them, which has been really good for us, so we are looking forward to it and, barring injuries, we should have a healthy roster.” 

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Elizabeth Shelton and Paige Whipple were again able to partially participate in practice this week and are waiting on clearance after being on concussion protocol, according to Stubbs. 

Shelton said she is progressing to one hundred percent and will see if she can play this weekend.

“I would like to help. I’ll [be] around [to] do whatever I can, so whatever job they need me to do that is what I will do, whether it’s blocking, whether it’s defending, whether it’s being offensive,” Shelton said.

Going into the series this weekend, senior Victoria Svorinic said the team has been working on serving and passing. She also said USC and UCLA are fun to play against.

“Every single game in the Pac [12], you can’t really treat one more so than the other. Everyone is tough, everyone is good and, because of that, anyone can win on any given night, so you just have to come out strong, competing every single game. We expect a fight and we expect us to play pretty well,” Svorinic said.

USC is 4-2, only having lost to the Oregon Ducks and Stanford Cardinals, and the UCLA Bruins are 4-3 in Pac-12 play. 

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