#4 UCLA Hosts #6 LBSU on Senior Day
April 12, 2016 | Beach Volleyball
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LOS ANGELES -- The UCLA Bruins (14-4) remained at No. 4 in this week's AVCA Collegiate Beach Volleyball Poll and moved up one spot to No. 4 in the DiG Magazine Top 20 Poll after a pair of wins last week over ranked teams. This week, the Bruins host No. 6 Long Beach State (9-8) on "Senior Day" in the Bruins' home regular season finale. The match is slated for a 3:00 p.m. PT start time and will be televised live on the Pac-12 Network, with Anne Marie Anderson and Holly McPeak calling all of the exciting action. The first flight will consist of the number two and four teams followed by a 10-minute break. The second flight will feature the one and three pairs followed by a two-minute break. The final flight will be the duo on court five.
RECAPPING LAST WEEK
Then-No. 4/5 UCLA continued its stellar play with a pair of 5-0 sweeps over ranked teams at the 2016 USAV Beach Collegiate Challenge at Hermosa Beach last weekend. The Bruins opened with a win over No. 13 San Francisco and concluded with its second win of the season over No. 6 Long Beach State. The Bruins have won their last seven duals including six wins over ranked opponents. During that stretch, UCLA has defeated No. 1 Pepperdine (3-2), at No. 4 Hawai'i (3-2), vs. No. 6 Long Beach State (5-0), at No. 9 Stetson (3-2), vs. No. 13 San Francisco (5-0), vs. No. 17 Florida Atlantic (5-0) and a sweep of unranked Arizona State.
A YEAR OF FIRSTS
This year the Bruins have already posted their first-ever win over Pepperdine, Long Beach State and Hawai'i. Additionally, UCLA is 2-0 against Hawai'i and Long Beach State in 2016 and is 12-4 against ranked teams this year. The Bruins are 2-4 all-time against the 49ers.
TOUGH SCHEDULE
In addition to playing the top four teams in collegiate beach volleyball in its opening weekend, the Bruins have already faced eight of the other nine teams ranked in this week's AVCA Top 10 Poll a total of 12 times. In fact, 16 of UCLA's 18 matches this season have been ranked at the time the match was contested by either the AVCA or DiG Magazine Polls. Additionally, all four of the Bruins' losses this season have been to teams currently ranked in the Top 3.
INFUSION OF YOUTH
The Bruins have six freshmen on the team and another three newcomers from the indoor squad that made an impact in 2016. Freshmen identical twins Nicole McNamara and Megan McNamara (Vancouver, BC, Canada) have played every match on court one and are currently 10-7 on the year. Freshman Izzy Carey (Westlake Village, Calif.) is undefeated in duals the last two weeks (5-0) with her partner, sophomore Elise Zappia (Huntington Beach, Calif.) and currently sport a 14-7 overall record. Two indoor cross-over student-athletes, freshman Zana Muno (Hermosa Beach, Calif.) and sophomore Reily Buechler (Del Mar, Calif.) are playing their first season of collegiate beach competition and have teamed together to go 11-2 on court four. Another indoor player, junior Jordan Anderson (Flower Mound, Texas), is currently 5-3 on the year.
RETURNING VETERANS
The Bruins returned 10 letterwinners from last year's squad, all making considerable contributions. Headlining the group of veterans is senior Kamila Tan (San Diego, Calif.), who advanced to the 2015 AVCA National Pairs Championship. With her partner now graduated, she has spent the majority of the season with sophomore Ivey Schmitt (Encinitas, Calif.) on courts two and three and the duo has gone 11-6. Tan has also partnered with Jordan Anderson (2-0) and Zana Muno (2-1) to run her overall record to 15-7. UCLA also returns three other seniors in Julie Consani (Newport Beach, Calif.), Karly Drolson (Del Mar, Calif.) and Rachel Inouye (Kailua, Hawai'i). Consani has paired with junior Laurel Weaver (Winnetka, Calif.) to go 13-7 overall (11-4 on court five). Drolson is 4-5 this season while Inouye is 3-4.
PAC-12 OFFICIALLY ADDS BEACH VOLLEYBALL
Beach volleyball has been added as the 23rd Pac-12-sponsored sport beginning in the 2015-16 academic year. With eight member institutions (Arizona, Arizona State, California, Oregon, Stanford, UCLA, USC and Washington) currently fielding beach volleyball teams, the Conference of Champions is the first major conference to sponsor beach volleyball as an official sport.
As part of the addition, the Pac-12 will also sponsor a Beach Volleyball Championship from April 28 to May 1, 2016 with USC serving as the hosts. The format of which will be determined based upon the established NCAA qualification requirements.
NCAA CHAMPIONSHIP INFORMATION
The NCAA® Beach Volleyball Committee selected the host site for the inaugural National Collegiate Beach Volleyball Championship. The NCAA's 90th and newest National Championship will debut May 6-8, 2016 at the Gulf Shores Public Beach and will be hosted by the city of Gulf Shores, Alabama and Orange Beach Sports Commission.
The host institution for the inaugural beach volleyball championship will be the University of Alabama at Birmingham. The university and Gulf Shores have also been chosen as the hosts of the 2017 championship, which will be held May 5-7, 2017.
Beach volleyball is the fastest-growing NCAA sport with 47 sponsoring schools. The addition of the beach volleyball championship will become the 45th NCAA championship administered for women. The championship will have an eight-team bracket that will be played in a double-elimination format with teams consisting of five pairs of female student-athletes. After being placed on the list of emerging sports for women in 2009, beach volleyball is the fifth sport to succeed from the emerging sports program.
Tickets to the 2016 NCAA Beach Volleyball Championship are on sale now exclusively here.