Check out a breakdown of the UCLA sports stories you might have missed this week.
Men’s and women’s tennis
Hanson Wang, assistant Sports editor
Clinching wins and going undefeated tends to put you on the short list for Pac-12 Player of the Week – that’s exactly what Martin Redlicki did to earn the honor for the third time this season.
The junior defeated Cal Lutheran’s Lucas Tilly 6-1, 6-0 on April 19, and then he eked out a 7-6 (9), 7-6 (2) victory over USC’s Nick Crystal to clinch UCLA’s 4-1 win over its crosstown rival Friday.
The Bruins jumped from No. 8 to No. 5, with senior Gage Brymer coming in at No. 22 in singles followed by Redlicki at No. 56. In doubles, Redlicki and freshman Evan Zhu jumped from No. 12 to No. 7 following a 6-3 upset of the Trojans’ then-No. 10 Brandon Holt and Riley Smith.
On the women’s side, UCLA dropped one spot to No. 23 after losing 4-3 to USC on Saturday. Freshman Ena Shibahara remained at No. 3 in the singles rankings for the third consecutive week, but redshirt freshman Jada Hart dropped out of the rankings for the first time since March.
The Bruins, for the first time all year, have more than two ranked doubles teams. Shibahara and Hart, who haven’t competed together since a February matchup against Pepperdine, are ranked No. 14. The combination of Hart and junior Terri Fleming comes in at No. 28, while sophomores Gabby Andrews and Alaina Miller and the pair of Shibahara and junior Kristin Wiley made their debuts at No. 59 and No. 79, respectively.
Women’s water polo
Hanson Wang, assistant Sports editor
In a rivalry match between the top two teams in the country, freshman Maddie Musselman was the best player in the pool, tying a career high with five goals in No. 1 UCLA’s 11-7 win over No. 2 USC on Saturday.
Now, she’s also made history by becoming the first person to be named Mountain Pacific Sports Federation Player of the Week and Newcomer of the Week at the same time. The newcomer honor was the freshman’s seventh of the season, which extends her conference record for most Newcomer of the Week awards in a single season that she set last week. The MPSF Player of the Week award is the first of her career.
Musselman also increased her team-leading goal total to 55, which is 15 more than any other Bruin. That number also ranks second in the MPSF behind USC’s Stephania Haralabidis, who has 75 goals.
Her big day clinched the No. 1 seed in next week’s MPSF women’s water polo tournament for UCLA, which has a first round bye and will not face another top-three ranked opponent until at least the finals.
Softball
David Gottlieb, assistant Sports editor
Rachel Garcia didn’t give up a run all weekend against California, so she was awarded both the Pac-12 Pitcher of the Weekand Freshman of the Week honors Tuesday. This is the second time this season that she has won both awards in the same week.
The redshirt freshman threw a complete-game shutout Friday, 2 1/3 innings of relief Saturday – which earned her a save – and 5 1/3 innings of relief Sunday. She struck out 16 batters.
UCLA swept the series, which put them above .500 in conference play for the first time this season.
On the offensive side, Zoe Shaw went 5-for-9 over the weekend to take home UCLA/Muscle Milk Student-Athlete of the Week for April 17-23.