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LOS ANGELES -- No. 3 UCLA (19-2) makes its campus home opener at Sunset Canyon Beach Volleyball Courts on Wednesday, April 5, when it hosts #20 Cal Poy (10-10) at 12:00 p.m. PT live on the Pac-12 Network. The Bruins will also host #20 Loyola Marymount (7-8) tomorrow on the Pac-12 Network at 3:00 p.m. PT. In a non-televised match, the two teams that are tied at #20 will square off against each other to start the day at 9:00 a.m. PT. UCLA enters the match tomorrow sporting a UCLA-record 17-dual match winning streak. Later in the week, the Bruins will serve as co-hosts with #5 Long Beach State in the Battle at the Beach on April 8-9 at Ocean Park in Santa Monica, Calif. UCLA will face Washington at Noon on Saturday and Concordia at 2:00 p.m. On Sunday, UCLA will square off with #5 Long Beach State (17-3) at Noon and then take on #8 Arizona (11-6) at 2:00 p.m.
THIS WEEK'S UCLA SCHEDULE
Opponent: #20 Cal Poly
Location: Sunset Canyon Beach Volleyball Courts
Date: Wednesday, April 5, 2017
Time: 12:00 p.m. (PT)
TV: Pac-12 Networks
Talent: Anne Marie Anderson (play-by-play); Nicole Branagh (analyst)
Opponent: #20 Loyola Marymount
Location: Sunset Canyon Beach Volleyball Courts
Date: Wednesday, April 5, 2017
Time: 3:00 p.m. (PT)
TV: Pac-12 Networks
Talent: Kevin Barnett (play-by-play); Nicole Branagh (analyst)
BATTLE AT THE BEACH (UCLA'S SCHEDULE)
Opponent: Washington
Location: Ocean Park in Santa Monica, Calif.
Date: Saturday, April 8, 2017
Time: 12:00 p.m. (PT)
Opponent: Concordia
Location: Ocean Park in Santa Monica, Calif.
Date: Saturday, April 8, 2017
Time: 2:00 p.m. (PT)
Opponent: #5 Long Beach State
Location: Ocean Park in Santa Monica, Calif.
Date: Sunday, April 9, 2017
Time: 12:00 p.m. (PT)
Opponent: #8 Arizona
Location: Ocean Park in Santa Monica, Calif.
Date: Sunday, April 9, 2017
Time: 2:00 p.m. (PT)
POLLING THE BRUINS
UCLA is ranked No. 3 this week in both the AVCA Collegiate Beach Volleyball Poll and in the DiG Magazine Poll, as released on April 3.
RECORD-SETTING BRUINS
UCLA opened the season at 2-2 after a pair of 3-2 defeats to current No. 1 USC and No. 2 Pepperdine at the Pepperdine Kick-Off on March 4. Since then, the Bruins have reeled off 17 straight dual victories, a UCLA record (12 was the previous mark set last year). In that span, the Bruins have posted nine 5-0 sweeps, four wins by a count of 4-1 and four by a 3-2 margin. Additionally, 12 of the wins have come against ranked teams, including two over then #2 and current #4 Florida State (3-2 and then 4-1). The streak also includes a 3-2 win over then #6 and current #5 Long Beach State and a 5-0 win over then #7 Georgia State. The Bruins have also won 13 straight matches on court three, which equals the longest winning streak on any court (court one and four also had 13-match winning streaks this season). The Bruins are 20-1 on court four in 2017.
CANADIAN ALL-AMERICAN TWINS
UCLA returns its top pair from 2016 in sophomore twins Megan McNamara and Nicole McNamara (Vancouver, BC, Canada). The McNamara twins became the second and third AVCA Beach All-Americans at UCLA last year, joining Kelly Reeves from 2013. The are currently 17-3 on the year, pairing only with each other and only on court one. Additionally, they became the first-ever all-freshman pair in the history of the sport to earn All-American accolades. They went 16-12 overall at court one last year. In addition to the AVCA All-American honors, they were also named 2016 DiG Magazine First Team All-Americans, DiG Magazine Co-Freshmen of the Year., First Team All-Pac-12 and Pac-12 Beach Volleyball All-Tournament Team. Additionally, Megan was named Pac-12 Freshman of the Year. The twins also captured bronze at the 2016 FIVB U-21 World Championships when they defeated USA's Sarah Sponcil (LMU) and Torrey Van Winden (UCLA), 18-21, 23-21, 15-10.
KAMILA TAN RETURNS FOR FINAL SEASON
Senior Kamila Tan (San Diego, Calif.) returns for her final season on the beach for UCLA after an impressive 2016 season that saw her play the majority of the year on court two, going 17-12 overall (17-10 in duals, 11-6 on court two and 6-4 on court three). Tan was named Second Team All-Pac-12 and 2016 Second Team All-American by DiG Magazine. She has a new partner in 2017, freshman Madi Yeomans (Ocean Beach, Calif./Point Loma), and the duo is currently 15-5 overall (14-5 on court two and 1-0 on court one).
FRESHMAN PAIR ON COURT THREE
Court three this season for UCLA so far has mostly featured a freshman tandem of Savvy Simo (Ranco Santa Fe, Calif./Torrey Pines HS) and Torrey Van Winden (Napa, Calif./Vintage HS). Van Winden finished third on the indoor team in kills (304, 2.87 kps) and third in blocks (69, 0.65 bps) in the fall. She also reached the semifinals of the 2016 FIVB U-21 World Championships last summer. The freshmen are 6-2 on the year, playing exclusively on court three. But Simo has missed nine duals due to injury this season, allowing Van Winden to partner with junior Elise Zappia. That new pair is 9-1 on the year (8-1 on court three and 1-0 on court two).
VETERANS HOLDING DOWN COURT FOUR
Court four normally features junior Elise Zappia (Huntington Beach, Calif.) and sophomore Izzy Carey (Westlake Village, Calif.). Last year, Zappia and Carey played the entire season together, posting an overall record of 21-12, which included going 7-6 on court two and 12-5 on court three. This season, the duo is currently undefeated at 11-0 (8-0 on court four and 3-0 on court three). Individually, the pair also holds the best overall record this season at 20-1. While Zappia has paired with the aforementioned Van Winden to go 9-1, Carey has paired with senior Jordan Anderson (Flower Mound, Texas) to also go 9-1 overall (8-1 on court four and 1-0 on court three). That gives Jordan Anderson the third-best individual record on the team at 15-1, going 2-0 with Savvy Simo on court four and 4-0 with Chanti Holroyd (3-0 on court five and 1-0 on court four).
ROOKIES IMPROVING ON COURT FIVE
A pair of freshmen, Lily Justine (Chico, Calif./Pleasant Valley HS) and Chanti Holroyd (Mountain View, Calif./Mountain View HS) are currently 10-7, mostly on court five this season. The duo got a slow start out of the gates, opening with a 1-5 record, but have gone 9-2 since, including going 1-0 on court four.
PAC-12 BEACH VOLLEYBALL
Last year, beach volleyball was added as the 23rd Pac-12-sponsored sport beginning in the 2015-16 academic year. Now with nine member institutions (Arizona, Arizona State, California, Oregon, Stanford, UCLA, USC, Utah and Washington) currently fielding beach volleyball teams, the Conference of Champions was 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 for the second straight season. This year, Arizona will serve as the hosts from April 27-30.
NCAA CHAMPIONSHIP INFORMATION
For the second straight season The NCAA® National Collegiate Beach Volleyball Championship will be held May 5-7 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. Beach volleyball is the fastest-growing NCAA sport with 65 sponsoring schools, which is up 18 from a year ago. The addition of the beach volleyball championship last year became the 45th NCAA championship administered for women and the 90th NCAA championship overall. 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 2017 NCAA Beach Volleyball Championship are on sale now exclusively here.
RECAPPING 2016
Easily its most successful season to date, UCLA completed the 2016 season with an overall record of 22-8. The 22 wins were a school record for wins in a season and the Bruins finished third in the final polls (also a program-high) after a third-place finish at the first-ever NCAA Championship. At the NCAAs, the Bruins were seeded fourth and immediately fell into the contender's bracket after dropping its first match to No. 5 Hawai'i, 3-0. The Bruins survived its next match, 3-2, over No. 8 Stetson. Another thriller followed when UCLA eliminated No. 3 Pepperdine, 3-2. UCLA then got a chance to exact some revenge over Hawai'i and won the rematch, 3-0. That set up a contender's bracket final with No. 1 Florida State, which the Seminoles won 3-1.