No. 4 UCLA Concludes Regular Season
April 20, 2016 | Beach Volleyball
SOCIAL MEDIA: BeachVB on Twitter | BeachVB on Facebook | BeachVB on Instagram
LOS ANGELES -- The UCLA Bruins (15-4) remained at No. 4 in this week's AVCA Collegiate Beach Volleyball Poll for the third straight week. The Bruins close out the regular season this week with a triangular meet at CSUN on Wednesday, April 20. The Bruins will open with Loyola Marymount (5-14) in Northridge, Calif., at 12:30 p.m. UCLA will end the day with a road dual at CSUN (5-11) at 2:30 p.m. at the Matador Beach Volleyball Facility.
RECAPPING LAST WEEK
No. 4 UCLA continued its stellar play with its second-consecutive 5-0 sweep of sixth-ranked Long Beach State on April 13. The Bruins have won their last eight duals including seven wins over ranked opponents. During that stretch, UCLA has defeated No. 1 Pepperdine (3-2), at No. 4 Hawai'i (3-2), a neutral site win over No. 6 Long Beach State (5-0), at home over 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 3-0 vs. Long Beach State in 2016 and is 13-4 against ranked teams this year.
TOUGH SCHEDULE
In addition to playing the top four teams in collegiate beach volleyball in its opening weekend, the Bruins have faced eight of the other nine teams ranked in this week's AVCA Top 10 Poll a total of 13 times. In fact, 17 of UCLA's 19 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 11-7 on the year. Freshman Izzy Carey (Westlake Village, Calif.) is undefeated in duals the last three weeks (6-0) with her partner, sophomore Elise Zappia (Huntington Beach, Calif.) and currently sports a 15-7 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 12-2 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 12-6. Tan has also partnered with Jordan Anderson (2-0) and Zana Muno (2-1) to run her overall record to 16-7. 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 14-7 overall (12-4 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.