University of California, Los Angeles, Athletics
Three Bruins Named to 2020 U.S. Beach Collegiate National Team
May 28, 2020 | Beach Volleyball
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COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. -- Three current UCLA Bruins have been named to the 2020 U.S. Beach Collegiate National Team. The 29 athletes represent a total of 11 universities from around the country.
Graduate transfer student Jacqueline Quade joins sophomores Lindsey Sparks and Abby Van Winkle on the team.
Players were nominated to the team by their coaches and selected based on their collegiate rankings.
Quade ended the shortened 2020 season with an overall record of 4-0. She partnered with Sparks to go 1-0 (vs. No. 8 Loyola Marymount) on court four and she also went 1-0 on court five (at No. 5 Hawai'i) with freshman Rileigh Powers. She also went 1-0 on court five (vs. No. 19 Stanford) with redshirt sophomore Cami Sanchez, and 1-0 on court five (vs. Tulane) with junior Megan Muret. Quade was also 5-0 in exhibition matches (court six) with Sanchez on the year and was one of four Bruins to go undefeated on the year.
Sparks ended the season with an overall record of 12-3 and a career mark of 45-5. She partnered with freshman Lexy Denaburg for most of the 2020 season and was 10-3 on court two and 1-0 on courts three and four. Sparks began the year going 1-0 with Quade on court four and went 1-0 with junior Mac May on court two. The Bruins faced 11 ranked opponents in the 15 duals in the shortened season with Sparks going 8-3 against ranked teams while recording a season-best winning streak of eight consecutive duals which began with the season opener vs. No. 8 LMU (Feb. 20) and was snapped at No. 2 LSU (Feb. 29).
Van Winkle ended the season with an overall record of 13-2 and a career record of 42-7. She partnered with senior Savvy Simo for the entire 2020 season, all on court one. The duo helped the top-ranked Bruins to a 5-1 weekend at the Outrigger Duke Kahanamoku Beach Classic and was named the Pac-12 Pair of the Week (Feb. 25), with all five wins coming against ranked teams before closing out the opening weekend with a hard-fought 3-2 decision against then-No. 3 LSU. Van Winkle and Simo took down 2019 first team AVCA All-Americans Claire Coppola and Kristen Nuss from LSU in straight sets in the first meeting but lost in three sets the second time around. The duo was named Pac-12 Pair of the Week for the second time on Mar. 10 after helping the second-ranked Bruins to a 4-0 weekend at the Pac-12 South Tournament which included wins over two ranked opponents as UCLA defeated Oregon, Washington, No. 5 USC, and No. 19 Arizona State. The pair won all four matches in straight sets at the tournament, allowing only one opponent to score more than 16 points in just one of the eight sets as their wins on court one clinched the team dual victory over ASU (Mar. 7) and Oregon (Mar. 8). The duo also went 9-2 against ranked teams on the year and recorded a season-best winning streak of six consecutive duals which was still alive at the end of the season.
Training plans for the team are on hold while the country deals with the COVID-19 pandemic.
The head coach for the women's team is 1996 Olympian and longtime beach volleyball high performance coach Barbra Fontana. She will be assisted by Hector Gutierrez, head coach of Texas Christian beach volleyball and Russell Brock, head coach of Louisiana State beach volleyball.
2020 U.S. Women's Beach Collegiate National Team
Name (Height, College, Hometown)
Kelli Agnew (5-9, Louisiana State, Glendale, Ariz.)
Bella Bauman (6-0, Grand Canyon, Wheaton, Ill.)
Brooke Buchner (5-11, Cal, La Jolla, Calif.)
Payton Caffrey (6-0, Florida State, Chuluota, Fla.)
Alaina Chacon (5-9, Florida State, Crown Point, Ind.)
Claire Coppola - left in photo (6-1, Louisiana State, Scottsdale, Ariz.)
Teagan Defalco (5-8, Grand Canyon, Long Beach, Calif.)
Kyla Doig (6-0, Southern California, Redondo Beach, Calif.)
Hunter Domanski (5-10, Louisiana State, New Braunfels, Texas)
Kylie Grandy (5-10, Southern Miss., Rolesville, N.C.)
Haley Hallgren (6-1, Southern California, Southlake, Texas)
Hailey Harward (5-9, Southern California, Phoenix, Ariz.)
Taryn Kloth (6-4, Louisiana State, Sioux Falls, S.D.)
Iya Lindahl (5-8, Cal, San Diego, Calif.)
Lexi Mcleod (6-1, Cal State Northridge, Bakersfield, Calif.)
Mima Mirkovic (5-11, Cal, Irvine, Calif.)
Sydney Moore (5-6, Louisiana State, Pickering, Ohio)
Audrey Nourse (5-11, Southern California, Newport Beach, Calif.)
Nicole Nourse (5-11, Southern California, Newport Beach, Calif.)
Kristen Nuss - right in photo (5-6, Louisiana State, New Orleans, La.)
Carly Perales (5-9, Stetson, Round Rock, Texas)
Sara Putt (5-11, Florida State, Jupiter, Fla.)
Jacqueline Quade (6-2, UCLA, Fort Wayne, Ind.)
Ashlyn Rasnick-Pope (5-11, Louisiana State, Dallas, Texas)
Lindsey Sparks (5-8, UCLA, Huntington Beach, Calif.)
Jasmin Suarez (5-7, St. Mary's College of California, Corona, Calif.)
Torrey Van Winden (6-3, Cal Poly SLO, Napa, Calif.)
Abby Van Winkle (6-2, UCLA, San Clemente, Calif.)
Liz Waters-Leiga (5-11, Florida State, San Leandro, Calif.)
Head Coach: Barbra Fontana
Assistant Coach: Hector Gutierrez
Assistant Coach: Russell Brock
