Men’s basketball
Sam Connon, assistant Sports editor
The first AP rankings for the 2018-2019 men’s basketball season are out.
UCLA will enter the season ranked No. 21 in the country after making the preseason top 25 for the third consecutive year.
In 2017, the Bruins also started at No. 21, and they were ranked No. 16 to start the 2016-2017 season. UCLA has not been ranked inside the preseason top 10 since 2008.
Oregon was the highest ranked Pac-12 team in the polls – coming in at No. 14 – while No. 25 Washington was the third and final Pac-12 team inside the top 25. Arizona and USC both received votes.
UCLA now has four games against ranked opponents this season, with the potential of adding another depending on the outcome of the North Carolina versus Texas game in the Continental Tire Las Vegas Invitational.
Cincinnati and Notre Dame both received votes, while Ohio State was left out of the rankings entirely.
Last year, the Bruins were 2-2 against ranked teams.
UCLA men’s basketball gets back on the court Saturday night against NYIT in Pauley Pavilion for the Bruins’ sole preseason exhibition game.
Women’s golf
Sam Connon, assistant Sports editor
UCLA women’s golf will have to wrap up its fall season without its top two golfers.
Sophomore Patty Tavatanakit and senior Lilia Vu will be playing in the Ladies Professional Golf Association Q-Series for at least the next two weeks. Tavatanakit and Vu will play the first two rounds at the Pinehurst Course in Pinehurst, North Carolina, from Wednesday to Saturday and Oct. 31- Nov. 3.
If either player finishes inside the top 45, they are guaranteed LPGA membership for the 2019 season.
To qualify for the LPGA Q-Series, players can either be ranked No. 101 to No. 150 on the LGPA money list, No. 11 through No. 30 on the Symetra Tour money list, inside the top 75 of the Rolex Women’s World Golf Rankings, or inside Golfweek’s Collegiate Rankings top five.
Tavatanakit is the No. 1 collegiate women’s golfer in the country, while Vu is No. 19.
Vu was named the PING Women’s Golf Coaches Association Player of the Year – as well as the Pac-12 Conference Golfer of the Year – after the 2017-2018 season. She won four tournaments and finished inside the top 10 nine times.
Tavatanakit was the WGCA and Pac-12 Conference Freshman of the Year last season, while also being named a First Team All-American. She won four tournaments and notched six top-10 finishes.
UCLA finished outside the top two for the first time this fall in the Stanford Intercollegiate without Vu and Tavatanakit this past weekend. It was the first time the Bruins finished lower than third place in a tournament since the 2017 NCAA regionals.
Beach volleyball
Joy Hong, assistant Sports editor
Sarah Sponcil is still competing professionally before the Bruins’ season begins.
The senior paired up with USC graduate Kelly Claes in an FIVB four-star tournament in Las Vegas over the weekend. The duo was eliminated in round 2 of the tournament, after finishing 1-1 in pool play.
The pair dropped its first match 21-19, 21-18 to Brazil’s Maria Clara Salgado Solberg and Elize Secomandi Maia in Pool H of the main draw. Sponcil and Claes bounced back in their second match of pool play, defeating Germany’s Cinja Tillmann and Anna Behlen 21-7, 21-14.
After earning a spot in the first elimination round, Sponcil and Claes beat Brazil’s Josemari Alves and Liliane Maestrini in straight sets 21-17, 21-19.
The duo, however, then fell to Brazil’s Carolina Solberg Salgado and Maria Antonelli in three sets and failed to advance to the third round.
Sponcil and Claes became a tandem for the first time Oct. 4 when they competed in an FIVB three-star tournament in Qinzhou, China. The pair defeated Russia’s Ekaterina Birlova and Evgenia Ukolova 21-13, 21-16 to earn third place.