Check out a breakdown of the UCLA sports stories you might have missed this week.
Preseason tuneup
Competing on campus for the first time this season, UCLA men’s volleyball was able to debut some of its newest faces to Bruin fans at the four-team SAC Tournament last weekend.
The home team went 2-1 over the course of the two-day event, falling to UC Santa Barbara on Friday and finishing with a 3-0 sweep of the USC Trojans Saturday afternoon. The rivals split the 2015 season series and will play each other twice in 2016.
The Bruins have six true freshmen on the 2016 roster, three of whom played a large share of minutes over the weekend – libero Davis Gillett, outside hitter Dylan Missry and setter/hitter Micah Ma’a. Sophomore setter Eric Matheis was the team’s setter for the entirety of the USC match.
An exhibition match with British Columbia on Jan. 3 is all that stands between UCLA and the regular season, when the Bruins will open with six straight on the road.
New skipper
Dave Roberts spent 10 seasons in the major leagues, including three in Los Angeles with the Dodgers. But his playing career is largely defined by one moment: His steal of second base in Game 4 of the 2004 American League Championship Series helped catapult the Boston Red Sox to an unprecedented series comeback and a World Series championship that broke the franchise’s 86-year drought.
Now Roberts will start a new chapter with the Los Angeles Dodgers, as his managerial career will begin in the same city where the speedy outfielder became UCLA’s all-time leader in stolen bases.
As he takes over the Dodgers – who lost in the Division Series even with a record $310 million payroll last year – Roberts will face the pressure of championship hopes.
Perhaps he can steal another.
Falling short of Australian wildcard
While most of the men’s tennis team finished the fall season a week ago, one player was still pushing, trying to make some noise on the ATP tour.
Junior Mackie McDonald went on a six-match win streak in the JMS Challenger of Champaign-Urbana in Champaign, Illinois. However, in the semifinal, McDonald fell to Taylor Fritz 6-7 (4), 6-2, 6-2. This was McDonald’s fourth Challenger event of the fall.
The junior jumped up to No. 379 in world rankings. In college tennis, he is the No. 3 player in country. Had McDonald won the tournament, he would have earned the USTA wildcard for the Australian Open.
No. 1 doubles ranking
Former Bruin Jean-Julien Rojer and his doubles partner Horia Tecau secured the No. 1 doubles ranking in the world after downing the Bob and Mike Bryan 6-4, 6-4 in the semifinal of the ATP World Tour Finals.
“It feels pretty darn good right about now,” Rojer said at a press conference after the semifinal. “There was so much riding on this match for us. We put in a lot of hard work, like many of the other teams do, of course. To have it come down to one match to play for the year-end No. 1 spot, it’s just a dream scenario. On top of that, to win it with a lot of our friends and family here, it’s just really cool.”
In the final, the pair defeated defeated eighth seeds Rohan Bopanna and Florin Mergea 6-4, 6-3, winning the ATP World Tour Finals.
Rojer and Tecau had a very successful ATP season, finishing with three team titles, including Wimbledon. They finish the year with a 48-21 match record.
Compiled by Matt Cummings, Korbin Placet and Tanner Walters, Bruin Sports senior staff.