Check out a breakdown of the UCLA sports stories you might have missed this week.
Men’s and women’s tennis rack up conference awards
A pair of UCLA tennis players came away with the conference’s top weekly award.
Junior Martin Redlicki of the men’s team and freshman Ena Shibahara of the women’s team were named Pac-12 Players of the Week after their performances this weekend.
Redlicki and the men’s team went on their first road trip of the year to play two of the top ranked teams in the nation – No. 11 Florida and No. 5 Georgia. The junior did not drop a set for a second consecutive week, defeating the No. 3 doubles team of Johannes Ingildsen and Alfredo Perez 6-4 and No. 54 Jan Zielinski and Robert Loeb 7-6 (3) alongside doubles partner freshman Evan Zhu.
In singles, Redlicki took down the Bulldogs’ No. 31 Emil Reinberg 7-5, 7-5 and the Gators’ Chase Perez-Blanco 6-4, 6-2.
In a similar fashion, Shibahara did not drop a set either. Alongside her doubles partner redshirt freshman Jada Hart, Shibahara beat Jana McCord and Parminder Kaur 6-2 of Saint Mary’s and UC Santa Barbara’s Stefani Stojic and Palina Dubavets 6-2.
Shibahara also beat both McCord and Dubavets in singles 6-4, 6-3.
Another Bruin in the Hall
Former UCLA free safety Kenny Easley was voted into the Hall of Fame on Saturday night, becoming the sixth UCLA football alumnus to be awarded the honor. To this day, Easley is still the school record-holder in career interceptions and is fifth on the all-time tackles list.
Easley was named AFC Defensive Rookie of the Year in 1981 after his very first season in the NFL. Over his seven-year career with the Seattle Seahawks, he recorded 32 interceptions and scored three defensive touchdowns. In 1984, he recorded a league-leading 10 interceptions and was named Defensive Player of the Year.
At UCLA, Easley was a starter for every game from 1977-1980 save for one – his very first game his freshman year. He is one of only two three-time All-Americans in UCLA and conference history, and was the first person in conference history to be named first-team All-Conference all four years.
Basketball awards updates
The Nancy Lieberman Award for NCAA women’s basketball recognizes the top Division I point guard, and junior guard Jordin Canada is one of 10 finalists halfway through the season.
Additionally, Canada was named to the midseason watch list for the Dawn Staley Award, another award for collegiate guards.
Canada leads No. 15 UCLA in points with 422, and in assists with 163. Her assists figure is also No. 1 overall for the conference, before Monday night’s game against Stanford, ahead of Colorado’s Kennedy Leonard and Utah’s Erika Bean by nearly thirty.
UCLA has never had a player win either of the awards Canada is up for, in the four-year history of the Staley Award and in the 17-year history of the Lieberman Award.