Though the faces may be new and the court may be different, the UCLA sand volleyball team looked right at home Thursday as the Bruins defeated the Cal State Northridge Matadors 3-2 in their first match of the season.
In all, seven different Bruins made their UCLA sand volleyball debut. However, UCLA was a far cry from last year’s squad that dropped its inagural match 5-0 to Florida State.The Bruins appeared calm and collected throughout their respective matches, due in part to an overall increase in the experience of the squad.
“I feel like we are further along than we were in our first match last year, no question. The returners for sure have gotten better,” said coach Stein Metzger. “It was nice having (Jessyka Nguauamo), a freshman who has a lot of experience playing before, and (sophomore) Kamila Tan, who transferred over. So that was a nice influx of some people who have a lot of experience in the sport so that really helped us.”
That No. 1 pairing of Nguaumo, an Australian native who was a member of the U19, U21 and U23 National Beach Volleyball teams, and sophomore Kamila Tan, a UC San Diego transfer, was particularly impressive in its UCLA sand volleyball debut, downing Northridge’s Natalie Allen and Mahina Haina 21-12, 21-11. Though the pair has only played together for seven weeks, Ngauamo came away pleased with their first effort.
“It came easy playing with Kamila, it just clicked, we are really lucky we don’t have any problems,” Ngauamo said. “The game felt really good, we were really positive and stayed focused on our side of the net. We hadn’t seen too much of the other team, so we had to focus on ourselves and control what we could control.”
Metzger also had praise for the other side, as the second-year coach said he was surprised by how well a Matadors squad was playing its first sand volleyball match.
However, of no surprise for Metzger was the play of the pair he dubbed “Team America,” sophomores Karly Drolson and Rachel Inouye, the only Bruin pair that had played together in a match prior to Thursday.
“We found that when you put two smalls together, everyone thinks they are the underdog and everyone cheers for them,” Metzger said. “I looked over at one point (last year) and there were parents from the other team kind of cheering for them. And I’m like, ‘Oh my gosh, they are winning the hearts and minds of America,’ so they are America’s team.”
Perhaps more important than hearts and minds, Inouye and Drolson combined to win both their respective matches, taking it in straight sets 21-8, 21-14, and extended playing time together.
“We play really well together, so we decided to just stick with it. We played with everyone (prior to the season) and again (Inouye) and I just felt connected,” said Drolson.”(In Thursday’s match) we were really just controlled, and weren’t trying to get so many kills and panic, and just played our own game.
Drolson and the rest of the UCLA team will be back in action this weekend as they take on Irvine Valley College and Cal State Bakersfield Saturday.