UCLA
UCLA at Long Beach State
No. 1 UCLA Concludes Regular Season on Thursday
April 18, 2018 | Beach Volleyball
The Bruins will travel to No. 6 Long Beach State (23-5) for a 1:00 p.m. PT showdown at the LBSU Sand Courts.
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LOS ANGELESย -- No. 1 UCLA (30-3) puts its school-record 25-dual match winning streak on the line when it travels to No. 6 Long Beach State (23-5) to conclude the 2018 regular season with a 1:00 p.m. PT tilt on Thursday, April 19 at LBSUย Sand Courts.
THIS WEEK'S SCHEDULE
Opponent:ย No. 6 Long Beach Stateย (23-5)
Location:ย LBSUย Sand Courts
Date:ย Thursday, April 19, 2018
Time:ย 1:00 p.m. (PT)
POLLING THE BRUINS
UCLA is ranked No. 1 this week in the AVCAย Collegiate Beach Volleyball Poll for the third consecutive week. The Bruins are also ranked No. 1 in the DiG Magazine Poll, as released on Aprilย 16, 2018.
REHASHING LAST WEEK
UCLA was off last week and hasn't competed since going 4-0 at the Stanford West Coast Classic, where it defeated three ranked teams, including a 5-0 win over No. 20 Saint Mary's and 4-1 victories over No. 5 Cal Poly and at No. 13 Stanford (April 7-8).
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. 17 Stetson and No. 19 Tulane are not on the schedule). This week the Bruins play its 16th dual match against an opponent ranked in the top 10..
SCHOOL-RECORD WINNING STREAK
The top-ranked UCLA Bruins enter the regular season finale at No. 6 Long Beach State on a school-record 25 dual match winning streak. The Bruins have swept 14 opponents during the current winning streak and 21 of the 25 victories have been against ranked teams with nine of them ranked in the top 10 and five of them ranked in the top five.
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 joined Kelly Reeves from 2013 as the only AVCAย All-Americans in school history. The McNamaras are currently 27-8 on the year, all on court one, after winning 20 ofย their last 21ย matches, including the last four, 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 (junior transfer from LMU) and sophomore Lily Justine. They are 26-7 (all on court two) this season, having won their last 10 matches. Sponcilย redshirted the beach season last year at LMU and was the starting setter for UCLA this past indoor season. 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 18-2 over the last four weeks since being moved to court three. Last week there was an undisclosed injury to Muno, forcing the Bruins to go to its bench. UCLA hasn't played since the injury, so a decision will be made in the near future if Muno can't go on game day. Over a month agoย 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 then-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 21-3 (18-2 on court three, 1-1 on court four and 2-0 on court five), which leads the team by percentage at 87.5 percent.
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 (15-3ย 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). May and Zappiaย have won 18 of their last 19 matches (just two in a row).
NEW TANDEM(S)ย ONย COURT FIVE
Court five has also been an experimental court for UCLA with six different pairs. Junior Izzy Carey and freshman Megan Muretย are currently holding serve, going 24-1 on the court, and sport the best overall record on the team at 28-5. 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, as is senior Elise Zappiaย and sophomore Madi Yeomansย (1-0). Carey and Muret have the longest winning streak on the team, having won their last 25 matches, a UCLA record for any pair on any court.
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 100-37 (.730), including aย 30-3 (.909) mark this season. His 100th career victory came in a 4-1 win at No. 13 Stanford on April 8, 2018.ย 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.
