With an unfavorable ranking and two losses from last year in tow, it seemed like the Bruins would be walking into Playa del Rey with the disadvantage.
But they didn’t let the baggage from pundits and the past weigh them down.
Instead, the No. 9 UCLA (2-0) sand volleyball team made sure that disparity only remained on paper after clinching a 4-1 victory over No. 6 Loyola Marymount (0-3).
UCLA grabbed on to an early lead over LMU courtesy of two straight-set victories from the No. 2 doubles pair of fifth-year senior Madie Smith and freshman Elise Zappia, and the No. 4 doubles combination of juniors Karly Drolson and Rachel Inouye.
“We just really wanted to come out and win this year, because we had lost to them in previous years,” Zappia said. “For us to be able to set our team up for a victory so early felt really good.”
Although his team had already established a quick two-point cushion, and had three games to go to find the clincher, coach Stein Metzger said the hard part had only begun.
“LMU’s first team is a really tough team. They’re beating everyone, so I knew that one was going to be a tough one. (Senior) Zoë (Nightingale) was new at the five spot. At the three spot, (junior) Julie (Consani) is coming off indoor and is not quite totally comfortable yet with the beach game,” Metzger said. “It was certainly nerve-racking, I didn’t know how it was going to work out.”
UCLA almost suffered a setback that would’ve put LMU on the boards early after the remaining games were set in motion. The referee had adjudged Nightingale’s brace as insufficiently padded and would’ve truncated the senior’s comeback appearance from injury, were it not for the UCLA coaching staff scrambling to make the necessary adjustments.
“That was one of the wins we were counting on,“ Metzger said. “We were lucky that we were able to continue in that game because they were thinking of having us forfeit if we couldn’t do it.”
But the Bruins’ bout with misfortune didn’t end there. After securing the first set 21-18, UCLA’s No. 3 doubles team of Consani and sophomore Laurel Weaver were on pace to be the team that would secure the meet for UCLA. Then they got too confident.
“We were playing really well, and felt pretty confident, but it ended up hurting us because in the second set we started getting easier on defense and not keeping our side as tight as we’d liked to,” Consani said.
The Bruins’ setbacks proved only temporary, however, as Nightingale and her partner freshman Lexi Jasper-Baylin managed to clinch the No. 5 point in straight sets, while Consani and Weaver were able to dig themselves out of the hole and win the rubber set 15-12 to put the Bruins up 4-0.
Although the No. 1 doubles pair of junior Kamila Tan and freshman Ivey Schmitt wasn’t able to complete a comeback against the LMU duo to finish the meet, dropping the last set 15-9, the result at that point was academic – UCLA had already avenged their two losses to LMU from last year.
“The win we had showed improvement … it’s just really exciting to see our hard work pay off,” Consani said. “We want more.”