UCLA
Pepperdine vs. UCLA
Three Top Five Teams Battle on Wednesday at USC
February 27, 2018 | Beach Volleyball
Top-ranked USC hosts #3 UCLA and #5 Pepperdine on the Pac-12 Networks on Wed., Feb. 28.
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LOS ANGELESย -- No. 3 UCLA (3-1) begins a busy week that includes four matches against top five teams. The Bruins will travel crosstown to face No. 5 Pepperdine (2-1) on Wednesday, Feb. 28 at 1:00 p.m. PT on the Pac-12 Networks. Another TV dual will follow when the Bruins face No. 1 USC (4-0) at 2:30 p.m. PT at Merle Norman Stadium. The Bruins will finish the week off by traveling to Malibu, Calif., to face the same teams at the Zuma Classic at Zumaย Beach. UCLA will face USC on Saturday, March 3 at 10:15 a.m. PT followed by another clash with the Waves at 11:30 a.m. PT.
THIS WEEK'S SCHEDULE
Opponent:ย #5 Pepperdine (2-1)
Location:ย Merle Norman Stadium
Date:ย Wednesday, Feb. 28, 2018
Time:ย 1:00 p.m. (PT)
TV:ย Pac-12 Network
Talent:ย Anne Marie Anderson (play-by-play), Holly McPeak (analyst)
Opponent:ย #1 USC (4-0)
Location:ย Merle Norman Stadium
Date:ย Wednesday, Feb. 28, 2018
Time:ย 2:30 p.m. (PT)
TV:ย Pac-12 Network
Talent:ย Anne Marie Anderson (play-by-play), Holly McPeak (analyst)
Opponent:ย #1 USC (4-0)
Location:ย Zumaย Beach
Date:ย Saturday, Mar. 3, 2018
Time:ย 10:15ย a.m. (PT)
Opponent:ย #5 Pepperdine (2-1)
Location:ย Zumaย Beach
Date:ย Saturday, Mar. 3, 2018
Time:ย 11:30 a.m. (PT)
POLLING THE BRUINS
UCLA is ranked No. 3 this week in the AVCAย Collegiate Beach Volleyball Poll and No. 4 in the DiG Magazine Poll, as released on Feb. 26, 2018.
REHASHING LAST WEEK
UCLA opened the season with a 3-1 record at the 2018 Rainbow Wahine Classic on Feb. 24-25. The Bruins opened with a 5-0 win over No. 17 Stanford on Saturday, but dropped a 5-0 decision at No. 5 Hawai'i. The following day, the Bruins edged out both teams by identical scores of 3-2.
TOUGH SCHEDULE
UCLA will open the 2018 season with 14 straight opponents ranked in the Top 20 in the current AVCAย Collegiate Beach Volleyball Coaches Poll. In that span, the Bruins will face No. 1 USC twice, current No. 2 Hawai'i once, No. 4 Florida State once, then No. 5 Hawai'i twice, current No. 5 Pepperdineย twice, No. 6 LSU once, No. 11 Florida International, No. 14 TCU and No. 20 Loyola Marymount. In all, 28 of UCLA's 34 scheduled regular season opponentsย are ranked in this week's AVCAย Poll. Additionally, UCLA will face 17 of the 20 ranked teams at least once (only No. 13 Georgia State, No. 15 Stetson and No. 18 Tulane are not on the schedule).
CANADIAN ALL-AMERICANS
Juniors Megan McNamara and Nicole McNamara (Vancouver, BC, Canada)ย becameย two-timeย AVCA Beach All-Americans at UCLA last year, and join Kelly Reeves from 2013 as the only AVCAย All-Americans in school history. The McNamaras are currently 2-2ย on the year, 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 in their first year and improved to 28-7 on court one last season. In addition to the AVCA All-American honors, they were named first team All-Pac-12 in 2017 and to the 2017 Pac-12 All-Tournament Team. Inย 2016, they were also named DiG Magazine First Team All-Americans,ย DiG Magazine Co-Freshmen of the Year, First Team All-Pac-12 and Pac-12 Beach Volleyball All-Tournament Team.ย 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 the USA's Sarah Sponcilย (then-LMU, now UCLA) and Torrey Van Winden (then-UCLA, now Cal Poly), 18-21, 23-21, 15-10.
COURT TWO UPDATE
The Bruins have a new pair holding serve on court two in 2018 withย a pairing ofย newcomer Sarah Sponcilย (transfer from LMU) and sophomore Lily Justine. They are 2-2 on the year. Sponcilย redshirted the season last year and is a junior on the beach squad. Justine went 18-14 overall last year, most of which was on court five (15-12). Last season, Justine was 11-9 with Chanti Holroyd and 6-3 with Savvy Simo, spending all but one of those duals on court five.
NEW PAIR SEES SUCCESS ON COURT THREE
Court three this season features a newย partnership of two Bruins that lost their partners from 2017. Senior Elise Zappia and sophomore Madi Yeomansย are currently 3-1 in 2018. Zappiaย was named to the Pac-12 All-Tournament Team last year, partnering with Torrey Van Winden (transfer to Cal Poly). The duo went 21-4 overall, 19-3 on court three. Yeomans, a Pac-12 All-Freshman team member in 2017, partnered with graduate student Kamila Tan, UCLA's first-ever beach only player. Yeomans was also named second team All-Pac-12 as she and Tan went 22-15 on the year, 20-14 on court two.
NEW DUO ON COURT FOUR
Last year, court four was a dominant court for UCLA as the Bruin duo of Izzy Carey and Jordan Anderson went 21-3ย overall. The duo was named to the 2017 Pac-12 Beach Volleyball Championship All-Tournament Team. Anderson has graduated and freshman Megan Muret has stepped into her place. The tandem has struggled out of the gate, sporting a 1-3 record entering this week's competition
NEW TANDEM ONย COURT FIVE
Sophomoreย Savvy Simo (Rancho Santa Fe, Calif./Torrey Pines HS) battled a back injury last year allowing six different Bruins to play on court five last year. Already after the opening weekend, three different Bruins have appeared on the court. Simoย opened the weekend with sophomore Chanti Holroyd and the duo went 1-1 on Feb. 24. Head Coach Stein Metzger inserted freshman Mac May to compete with Simoย and the duo won both matches on Feb. 25, including a straight-set win over Hawai'i'sย Paige Dreeuwsย and Hannah Zalopany, 21-14, 21-17.
HALL OF FAME MENTOR
U.S. Olympian and UCLA Hall of Famer Stein Metzger is in his sixth season at the helm of the UCLA Beach Volleyball program. He sports an overall record of 73-35 (.676), including a 3-1 (.750) mark this season. Metzger was named the 2017 Pac-12 Coach of the Year after guiding UCLA to a second-place finish last year at the Pac-12 Championship and a 30-6 overall record.
PAC-12ย BEACH VOLLEYBALL
In 2016, beach volleyball was added as the 23rd Pac-12-sponsored sport beginning in the 2015-16 academic year. Now with nineย member institutions (Arizona, Arizona State, California, Oregon, Stanford, UCLA, USC, Utah and Washington)ย currently fielding beach volleyball teams, the Conference of Champions was the first major conference to sponsor beach volleyball as an official sport.ย As part of the addition, the Pac-12 will also sponsor a Beach Volleyball Championship for the third straight season. This year, Stanford will serveย as the hosts from April 26-28.
NCAA CHAMPIONSHIP INFORMATION
For the third straight season The NCAAยฎ National Collegiate Beach Volleyball Championship will be held May 4-6ย at the Gulf Shores Public Beach and will be hosted by the city of Gulf Shores, Alabama and Orange Beach Sports Commission.ย The host institution for the beach volleyball championship will be the University of Alabama at Birmingham.ย Beach volleyball is the fastest-growing NCAA sport with 69 sponsoring schools at the Division I level, which is up fromย 65 a year ago and 47 from 2016.ย The addition of the beach volleyball championship in 2016ย 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 2018ย NCAA Beach Volleyball Championship are on sale now exclusivelyย here.
RECAPPING 2017
Ranked in the Top 5 all season, the Bruins won a school-record 30 duals compared to just six defeats. During the season, UCLA also posted a school-record 24 straight dual victories. The Bruins also got their first win over No. 1 USC in program history in the semifinals of the Pac-12 Championship, snapping the Trojans' 62-dual winning streak. The future looks bright for UCLA as the 2017 team was comprised of 50 percent freshmen in the starting lineup (5-of-10 starters). UCLA saidย goodbye to two seniors,ย Jordan Andersonย and the program's first-ever beach-only player, Kamila Tan.
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