UCLA
Arizona State vs. UCLA
No. 2 UCLA at Pac-12 South Invitational
March 23, 2018 | Beach Volleyball
The Bruins will face Arizona and ASU on Saturday and California and Washington on Sunday.
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LOS ANGELESย -- No. 2 UCLA (14-3) puts its nine-dual winning streak on the line when it faces four Pac-12 opponents this weekend at the Pac-12 South Invitational at Ocean Park Beach in Santa Monica, Calif., hosted by USC. The Bruins will open withย Arizona State on Saturday, March 24 at 9:00 a.m. PT and will end the day with No. 11 Arizona at Noon. UCLA will open Sunday's action with No. 16 California at 9:00 a.m. PT and willย conclude the Invitational against No. 19ย Washingtonย at Noon.
THIS WEEK'S SCHEDULE
Opponent:ย Arizona State (3-7)
Location:ย Ocean Park Beach (Santa Monica, Calif.)
Date:ย Saturday, March 24, 2018
Time:ย 9:00 a.m. (PT)
Opponent:ย No. 11 Arizona (9-3)
Location:ย Ocean Park Beach (Santa Monica, Calif.)
Date:ย Saturday, March 24, 2018
Time:ย 12:00 p.m. (PT)
Opponent:ย No. 16 California (11-1)
Location:ย Ocean Park Beach (Santa Monica, Calif.)
Date:ย Sunday, March 25, 2018
Time:ย 9:00 a.m. (PT)
Opponent:ย No. 19 Washingtonย (3-2)
Location:ย Ocean Park Beach (Santa Monica, Calif.)
Date:ย Sunday, March 25, 2018
Time:ย 12:00 p.m. (PT)
POLLING THE BRUINS
UCLA is ranked No. 2 this week in the AVCAย Collegiate Beach Volleyball Poll for the second straightย week. The Bruins are also ranked No. 2 in the DiG Magazine Poll, as released on Mar. 19, 2018, the same asย last week.
REHASHING LAST WEEK
UCLA won all three meetings last week in the Loyola Marymount Invitational at Ocean Park Beach in Santa Monica, Calif. The Bruins posted three 5-0 sweeps on Saturday, March 17, beginning with Missouri State and then Colorado Mesa and finishing with No. 16 LMU.
UCLA opened the 2018 season with 14 straight opponents ranked in the Top 20 in the AVCAย Collegiate Beach Volleyball Coaches Poll. In that span, the Bruins faced No. 1 USC twice, No. 3 Hawai'i once, No. 5 Florida State once, No. 5 Hawai'i twice, No. 5 Pepperdineย twice, No. 9 LSU once, No. 13 Florida International once, No. 17 Stanford twice, No. 17 Loyola Marymount once and No. 20 TCU once. 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. 11 Georgia State, No. 15 Stetson and No. 17 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 12-5 on the year, all on court one, after winning eight of their last nine matches, 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.
McNAMARAs NAMED PAC-12 PAIR OF THE WEEK
UCLA juniorsย Megan McNamaraย andย Nicole McNamaraย (Vancouver, BC, Canada) haveย been named the Pac-12 Conference's Pair of the Week as announced by the league office on March 20. The duo helped No. 2 UCLA run its winning streak to nine-consecutive duals, going 3-0 last week with three 5-0 sweeps at the LMU Invitational at Ocean Park Beach in Santa Monica, Calif., on Saturday, March 17.ย The tandemย won all three matches on court one without dropping a set, claiming two sets by holding their opponent to single digits.ย The pair opened with a 21-5, 21-13 win over Missouri State's Taylor Fricano/Veronica Snelling, followed with a 21-12, 21-4 win over Colorado Mesa's Taylor Woods/Katie Scherr, and endedย with a 21-15, 21-14 victory over No. 16 Loyola Marymount's Savannah Slattery/McKayla Ferris.ย It is the fourth weekly honor for the duo and the sixth for UCLA in the three-year history of the award.
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 sport the most winsย on the team at 13-4ย on the year, all on court two. 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
Sophomoreย Savvy Simoย andย junior Zana Munoย have gone 5-1 over the last two weeks since being moved to court three. Last week at the East Meets West Challenge, they went 3-1 with each victory clinching the dual for UCLA. None was larger than the 3-2 win over No. 5 Florida State when Simo delivered the winning kill on set, match and dual point. The pair have played on three different courts this season, sporting an overall record of 8-2 (5-1 on court three, 1-1 on court four and 2-0 on court five).
NEW DUO(S)ย ON COURT FOUR
The Bruins have already had five different pairs spend time on court four. Most recently, senior Elise Zappia and freshman Mac May (3-2ย overall) occupy the spot. But the court has also featured junior Izzy Carey and freshman Megan Muret (2-4), sophomore Savvy Simo and junior Zana Muno (1-1), freshman Mac May with Simo (0-2) and sophomore Madi Yeomans with Zappiaย (6-6).
NEW TANDEM(S)ย ONย COURT FIVE
Court five has also been an experimental court for UCLA with five different pairs. Junior Izzy Carey and freshman Megan Muretย are currently holding serve, going 9-1 on the court. But freshman Mac May and sophomore Savvy Simo have gone 2-0 on the court, as has junior Zana Munoย with Simo. Sophomore Chanti Holroyd and Simoย began the year on court five, going 1-1. Chanti Holroyd and freshman Jamie McQuarrie are also undefeated atย 1-0.
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 84-37 (.694), including a 14-3 (.824) 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, Kamilaย Tan.
