No. 4 UCLA Heads to Hermosa Beach
April 08, 2016 | Beach Volleyball
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LOS ANGELES -- The UCLA Bruins (12-4) jumped one spot to No. 4 in this week's AVCA Collegiate Beach Volleyball Poll after arguably one of the best weeks in the history of the young program (more on that later). This week the Bruins head to Hermosa Beach to compete in the 2016 USAV Beach Collegiate Challenge. UCLA will open the event on Saturday, April 9 with No. 13 University of San Francisco (13-2) at 10:30 a.m. on courts 1-5. The Bruins will then face No. 6 Long Beach State (8-6) at 12:45 p.m. on courts 6-10. Then on Sunday, April 10, there will be a pairs tournament starting at 9:30 a.m. with the finals slated for 3:00 p.m.
RECAPPING LAST WEEK
The then fifth-ranked Bruins had their best week in the history of the program, beginning with its first-ever win over a top three team and its first-ever win over No. 1 Pepperdine, 3-2. The Waves were previously undefeated and had knocked off defending NCAA champion USC earlier in the year. UCLA left the next day for Honolulu, Hawaii and opened up with a 5-0 sweep of Arizona State at Queen's Beach in Waikiki before posting another 3-2 upset at No. 4 Hawai'i.
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 weeks AVCA Top 10 Poll. In fact, 14 of UCLA's 16 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 are looking to make an immediate impact in 2016. Freshmen identical twins Nicole McNamara and Megan McNamara (Vancouver, BC, Canada) have played every match on court one and are currently 8-7 on the year. Freshman Izzy Carey (Westlake Village, Calif.) went undefeated last week (3-0) with her partner, sophomore Elise Zappia (Huntington Beach, Calif.) and currently sports a 10-6 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 9-2 on court four. Another indoor player, junior Jordan Anderson (Flower Mound, Texas), is currently 5-2 on the year.
RETURNING VETERANS
The Bruins return 10 letterwinners from last year's squad, all vying for playing time. 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 have gone 9-6. Tan has also partnered with Jordan Anderson (2-0) and Zana Muno (1-0) to run her overall record to 12-6. 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 11-7 overall (9-4 on court five).
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.