May 14, 2007

LOS ANGELES - The UCLA athletic department will hold a rally Tuesday to celebrate the return of the Lexus Gauntlet Trophy to Westwood and UCLA winning its 100th NCAA team championship. Tuesday's ceremony will begin at 11:30 a.m. on Spaulding Field and admission is free for all fans.

UCLA's women's water polo team defeated Stanford, 5-4, in the NCAA Championship on Sunday, May 13, allowing UCLA to become the first school to capture its 100th NCAA team title. The win gave UCLA its third consecutive women's water polo NCAA Championship. The Bruins' historic run to 100 team titles began in 1950, when the men's tennis team claimed UCLA's first NCAA team championship.

Tuesday's rally on Spaulding Field will also honor the return of the Lexus Gauntlet Trophy to UCLA. For the second time in three years and third time overall, UCLA got the best of its cross-town rival USC to win the all-encompassing Lexus Gauntlet. The Bruins set a new competition record for points - 72.5 to 37.5 - en route to claiming the coveted all-sports trophy.

The Southern California Lexus Dealers Association will present the perpetual 150-pound pewter-gilded trophy to Bruin athletic director Dan Guerrero in a trophy presentation at 11:30 a.m. where a number of UCLA coaches and student-athletes will participate in the festivities.

Immediately following, four distinguished Bruins - Guerrero, Chancellor Norman Abrams, 19-time NCAA volleyball championship coach Al Scates and six-time NCAA softball championship coach Sue Enquist - will speak briefly about the crowning achievement of coach Adam Krikorian's women's water polo team.