UCLA
Hawai'i at UCLA
No. 4 UCLA Prepares for Busy Week at Home
March 07, 2018 | Beach Volleyball
The Bruins host No. 3 Hawai'i and No. 17 LMU on Thursday, then the East Meets West Challenge this weekend.
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LOS ANGELES -- No. 4 UCLA (5-3) begins a busy week that includes its season-opener at home against No. 3 Hawai'i (3-1) on Thursday at 9:00 a.m. at Sunset Canyon Beach Volleyball Courts and will conclude the day against No. 17 Loyola Marymount (4-2) at 2:00 p.m. LMU and Hawai'i will face each other in between the duals against the Bruins. Then UCLA will host the second annual East Meets West Challenge on Saturday and Sunday, March 10-11 near the Manhattan Beach Pier in Manhattan Beach, Calif. Four top teams from the East (No. 5 Florida State, No. 9 LSU, No. 13 Florida International and No. 20 TCU) will battle four top teams from the West (No. 1 Pepperdine, No. 2 USC, No. 3 Hawai'i and No. 4 UCLA).
THIS WEEK'S SCHEDULE
Opponent: #3 Hawai'i (3-1)
Location: Sunset Canyon Recreation Beach Volleyball Courts
Date: Thursday, Mar. 8, 2018
Time: 9:00 a.m. (PT)
Opponent: #17 Loyola Marymount (4-2)
Location: Sunset Canyon Recreation Beach Volleyball Courts
Date: Thursday, Mar. 8, 2018
Time: 2:00 p.m. (PT)
Opponent: #9 LSU (5-3)
Location: Manhattan Beach Pier
Date: Saturday, Mar. 10, 2018
Time: 8:30 a.m. (PT)
Opponent: #13 Florida International (6-1)
Location: Manhattan Beach Pier
Date: Saturday, Mar. 10, 2018
Time: 2:30 p.m. (PT)
Opponent: #5 Florida State (8-0)
Location: Manhattan Beach Pier
Date: Sunday, Mar. 11, 2018
Time: 11:00 a.m. (PT)
Opponent: #20 TCU (3-4)
Location: Manhattan Beach Pier
Date: Sunday, Mar. 11, 2018
Time: 3:00 p.m. (PT)
EAST MEETS WEST CHALLENGE SCHEDULE:
| Saturday | Sunday | |||||
| 8:30 AM | UCLA vs LSU | 9:00 AM | UH vs FIU | |||
| 9:30 AM | PEPP vs FSU | 10:00 AM | PEPP vs LSU | |||
| 10:30 AM | USC vs FIU | 11:00 AM | UCLA vs FSU | |||
| 11:30 AM | UH vs TCU | 12:00 PM | UH vs LSU | |||
| 12:30 PM | USC vs LSU | 1:00 PM | USC vs TCU | |||
| 1:30 PM | UH vs FSU | 2:00 PM | PEPP vs FIU | |||
| 2:30 PM | UCLA vs FIU | 3:00 PM | UCLA vs TCU | |||
| 3:30 PM | PEPP vs TCU | 4:00 PM | USC vs FSU | |||
POLLING THE BRUINS
UCLA is ranked No. 4 this week in the AVCA Collegiate Beach Volleyball Poll and No. 5 in the DiG Magazine Poll, as released on Mar. 5, 2018.
REHASHING LAST WEEK
UCLA opened the week on a high note, defeating both of the 2017 NCAA finalists on the same day on Wednesday, Feb. 28. The Bruins posted a 3-2 win at USC, the first win at the Trojans and the second all-time in program history over USC. Then UCLA won another 3-2 dual with No. 5 Pepperdine, also its second overall victory over the Waves. The Bruins ended the week with the same two teams, this time at Zuma Beach in Malibu, Calif. But the Trojans defeated UCLA 3-2 to start play on Saturday, March 3. The Waves hand UCLA a 4-1 defeat to end the day.
TOUGH SCHEDULE
UCLA opens the 2018 season with 14 straight opponents ranked in the Top 20 in the current AVCA Collegiate Beach Volleyball Coaches Poll. In that span, the Bruins will face then No. 1 USC twice, current No. 3 Hawai'i once, No. 5 Florida State once, then No. 5 Hawai'i twice, then No. 5 Pepperdine twice, No. 9 LSU once, No. 13 Florida International once, No. 20 TCU once and No. 17 Loyola Marymount once. In all, 28 of UCLA's 34 scheduled regular season opponents are ranked in this week's AVCA Poll. Additionally, UCLA will face 17 of the 20 ranked teams at least once (only No. 11 Georgia State, No. 16 Stetson and No. 18 Tulane are not on the schedule).
CANADIAN ALL-AMERICANS
Juniors Megan McNamara and Nicole McNamara (Vancouver, BC, Canada) became two-time AVCA Beach All-Americans at UCLA last year, and join Kelly Reeves from 2013 as the only AVCA All-Americans in school history. The McNamaras are currently 4-4 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. In 2016, they were also named 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 the USA's Sarah Sponcil (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 with a pairing of newcomer Sarah Sponcil (transfer from LMU) and sophomore Lily Justine. They are 5-3 on the year. Sponcil 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 new partnership of two Bruins that lost their partners from 2017. Senior Elise Zappia and sophomore Madi Yeomans are currently 4-4 in 2018. Zappia 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(S) ON COURT FOUR
Last year, court four was a dominant court for UCLA as the Bruin duo of Izzy Carey and Jordan Anderson went 21-3 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 3-5 record entering this week's competition, which includes going 1-4 on court four and 2-1 on court five.
NEW TANDEM(S) ON COURT FIVE
Sophomore 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 first two weeks of play, six different Bruins and four different pairs have appeared on the court. Simo 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 Simo and the duo won both matches on Feb. 25. Freshman Megan Muret and junior Izzy Carey went 2-1 last week on court five while Simo paired with junior Zana Muno for one victory last week.
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 75-37 (.670), including a 5-3 (.625) 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-12 BEACH VOLLEYBALL
In 2016, 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 third straight season. This year, Stanford will serve as the hosts from April 26-28.
NCAA CHAMPIONSHIP INFORMATION
For the third straight season The NCAA® National Collegiate Beach Volleyball Championship will be held May 4-6 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 beach volleyball championship will be the University of Alabama at Birmingham. Beach volleyball is the fastest-growing NCAA sport with 69 sponsoring schools at the Division I level, which is up from 65 a year ago and 47 from 2016. The addition of the beach volleyball championship in 2016 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 2018 NCAA Beach Volleyball Championship are on sale now exclusively 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 said goodbye to two seniors, Jordan Anderson and the program's first-ever beach-only player, Kamila Tan.
