Senior Zoë Nightingale walked onto the sand volleyball court at the Stanford Invitational Pairs Tournament on Sunday with her partner, junior Kamila Tan, to play in the No. 1 and No. 2 pairs championship match.
Nightingale and Tan, who make up UCLA sand volleyball’s No. 1 team, invested a week of practice into preparation for the invitational, and after celebrating three victories earlier in the weekend, the pair was looking to claim its fourth and take the title as the No. 1 and No. 2 pairs champion team.
At the same time, fifth-year senior Madie Smith and freshman Elise Zappia were also stepping onto the court for their final match of the weekend. They had also combated fatigue, long days and three other teams to emerge with three victories for the weekend. They had only one thing standing between themselves and a fourth win of the weekend – Nightingale and Tan.
“We were kind of expecting it, but we were excited to play them,” Nightingale said. “It’s definitely different because you play them every day in practice. We kept saying, ‘We know this about them, we know this about them,’ but then they know all that about us as well, so it’s kind of even in a way, that we both know exactly what each other’s games are.”
And while the No. 1 and No. 2 pairs championship match lasted only two sets, with No. 2 pair Smith and Zappia ultimately falling to No. 1 pair Nightingale and Tan 21-15, 21-15, the UCLA sand volleyball team enjoyed victories on all championship courts.
“In my mind, I’m here to compete and win, and it doesn’t matter who’s on the opposite side of the net, I’m just going to play all out and do my best,” Tan said.
UCLA’s No. 4 pair of juniors Karly Drolson and Rachel Inouye swept Stanford’s No. 3 pair on the No. 3 and No. 4 pairs court in straight sets, and UCLA’s No. 5 pair of freshmen Lexi Jasper-Baylin and Ivey Schmitt defeated Stanford in three sets.
“Finally it came down to the end, and it was just like every court had at least one Bruin team on it, and it was super exciting,” said coach Stein Metzger. “A lot of them were really close too, but it just seemed like when it came down to crunch time in close matches, everybody just made a play or two and was able to close. It was pretty neat to see everyone just come through on the same day.”
The Bruins domination began with an early morning on Friday. The No. 8 Bruins (8-1) left home at 5 a.m. to arrive at Stanford to play their first match of the Stanford Invitational at 3 p.m. against the California Golden Bears (5-12). The Bruins dominated Cal in the Bruins’ and Bears’ first-ever sand volleyball matchup, 4-1.
UCLA continued its winning streak straight through Saturday, dominating No. 15 Stanford (7-4) 4-1 and St. Mary’s (4-10) 5-0. The weekend culminated in the pairs tournament, where UCLA claimed three of the three possible victories.
After returning home, the team will have only two days to rest before facing Long Beach State on Wednesday for the second time this season. The first time the teams met, UCLA suffered its first loss of the season. This time around, the team hopes ample rest and a long weekend of matches will leave it better prepared for victory.