Women’s basketball upsets Maryland in nail-biter to go to fourth straight Sweet 16

This post was updated March 25 at 7:41 p.m.

COLLEGE PARK, Md. — The Bruins may just have one national title, but they’re on to their fourth consecutive Sweet 16.

No. 6 seed UCLA women’s basketball (22-12, 12-6 Pac-12) upset No. 3 Maryland (29-5, 15-3 Big-10) 85-80 in the second round of the NCAA tournament Monday night – the 41st anniversary of the 1978 national championship game when the Bruins defeated the Terrapins 90-74.

As coach Cori Close got done with courtside media after the game, she glanced over to the crowd to see former Bruins Denise Curry and Debbie Haliday with wide smiles plastered across their faces.

“Both were on that team,” Close said, “To have those two people be the most supportive and the most exuberant … it means a lot.”

UCLA was still part of the Association for Intercollegiate Athletics for Women at the time, before the NCAA extended to women. The Bruins earned the AIAW title with the win over the Terps at Pauley Pavilion in front of 9,351 fans – the largest crowd to ever witness a women’s basketball title game by 1978.

“(Curry and Haliday) have been with us on our entire journey because they believe in our mission,” Close said. “But it honestly really hits my heart in a deep way and I’m really humbled to be a part of the trail that they blazed.”

Senior guard Kennedy Burke drilled a jumper at the top of the key with 1:03 to go in the final quarter, giving UCLA an 81-79 lead – one the Bruins held for the rest of the contest.

Senior guard Japreece Dean iced the game at the free throw line, going a perfect 8-of-8 on the night. Dean – who registered 22 points on the night – has gone 90-of-92 from the charity stripe since Nov. 24 and is on pace to break Anne Dean’s single-season UCLA record of 91.9 percent.

“I know people didn’t think (UCLA) would be here,” Dean said. “So I think that’s probably the best feeling – being somewhere you’re not suppose to be.”

UCLA jumped out to a 26-20 lead heading into the second period, but the Bruins allowed Terps forward Stephanie Jones to go 6-of-6 from the field for 13 first-quarter points.

In the second frame, UCLA strung together a 8-2 run during a 1:24 stretch, when the Bruins also grabbed five offensive rebounds. UCLA – which is the third-best offensive rebounding team in the nation, averaging 16.9 per game – already had 17 by halftime.

“Offensive rebounds have been one of our strengths since the beginning of the season,” said sophomore forward Michaela Onyenwere. “It just gives our guards confidence to shoot the ball because they know that we’re going to get the rebound and get extra possessions.”

Despite shooting just 36 percent from the field in the first half, the Bruins attempted 13 more shots than the Terps and outrebounded them 28-18. UCLA led 44-40 at the break.

But Maryland came out of the locker room with a 7-0 run to take a 47-44 advantage – its first lead since the beginning of the first quarter – before a right-elbow jumper by Burke ended the run.

The Terps outscored the Bruins 31-22 in the third quarter and led by five heading into the final period.

“We started off the third quarter kind of sluggish and I know I had those couple turnovers right at the beginning,” Dean said. “So I knew I had to regroup myself and regroup the team. … And then I had to be on attack mode because when I’m on attack mode, good things happen.”

In less than two minutes into the fourth quarter, a reverse layup by Onyenwere and a mid-range floater by Dean cut the Bruins’ deficit to 71-70 at the 8:37 mark. Onyenwere – who poured in a team-high 30 points and eight rebounds – followed that with back-to-back jumpers to pull UCLA ahead by one.

UCLA finished the game with 27 offensive rebounds despite the Terps shooting 47 percent from the field compared to the Bruins’ 36 percent.

“Sometimes (my players) needed to teach me by the way they chose to come in and grow and give to each other day after day when they weren’t being rewarded,” Close said. “I’m just really thankful. … And I feel like I’ve been able to grow as a coach this year because I’ve been able to be around them.”

The Bruins will face the No. 2-seeded Connecticut Huskies in the Albany regional Friday in the Sweet 16. The Huskies defeated the No. 10-seeded Buffalo Bulls 84-72 on Sunday night – their closest margin of victory in the Second Round since 1999.

Women’s tennis slams Oregon Ducks 6-1, finding redemption from tough loss

The Bruins bounced back with a win following their biggest loss of the season.

No. 9 UCLA women’s tennis (10-3, 3-0 Pac-12) defeated Oregon (6-11, 0-6) 6-1 at the Oregon Student Tennis Center in Eugene on Sunday. The victory came following the Bruins’ worst loss of the season, a 4-0 sweep at the hands of No. 20 Pepperdine.

Each freshman defeated her opponent in Sunday’s matchup, with the team’s newest members providing two of the points necessary for UCLA to clinch the win. Freshman Taylor Johnson emerged victorious against Oregon’s Taryn Fujimori, after not having participated in the loss against Pepperdine.

“I just told her to be patient,” said coach Stella Sampras Webster. “I think she’s finding her groove for how much she needs to train and study.”

Johnson found a groove Sunday and claimed each set against Fujimori 6-0. This win marked her fourth earned victory in singles play this season, a feat that Sampras Webster says will be used to spur further improvement.

“We’re really happy with her progress,” Sampras Webster said. “We just need her to continue to do the things she needs to do.”

The match came 11 days after the sweep by Pepperdine, the longest break in competition of the season. Sampras Webster said the team used its time off to make improvements following the loss.

“It gave us time to start the new quarter and focus on the things we can control,” Sampras Webster said. “We worked on specific things individually, and as a team, we made sure that everyone has the right mindset.”

Freshman Elysia Bolton – who also celebrated her birthday on Sunday – defeated Oregon’s Paiton Wagner 6-2, 6-3 to secure the Bruins’ fourth point on the day, and 10th win on the season.

“I knew we were playing it out, so it wasn’t that nerve-wracking because I also saw that (sophomore) Abi (Altick) was getting very close to finishing,” Bolton said. “I was very positive because I was not going to lose on my birthday.”

UCLA has now won its first three matches in conference play and will look to maintain its streak over the next seven conference matches that precede the Pac-12 championships.

“We’re just continuing to work really hard because everyone is really good,” Sampras Webster said. “We’re just hoping to finish the season strong.”

UCLA will face UC Santa Barbara this Wednesday at the Los Angeles Tennis Center at 1 p.m.

Women’s basketball to face Maryland for first time since 2008 in NCAA tournament

This post was updated March 25 at 2:45 p.m.

COLLEGE PARK, Md. — Japreece Dean made sure to shoot Lindsey Corsaro a text Saturday evening.

The senior guard wanted to congratulate Corsaro – a redshirt freshman guard – on a career-high performance in her first NCAA tournament game.

“I thought (she) was great,” Dean said. “I texted (Corsaro) after the game and I was like, ‘We need to see that every time and have that confidence every time you get on the floor.’”

No. 6 seed UCLA women’s basketball (21-12, 12-6 Pac-12) saw all five starters log double-digit scoring in its first-round win over No. 11 seed Tennessee (19-13, 7-9 SEC), and will face No. 3 seed Maryland (29-4, 15-3 Big Ten) in the second round of the NCAA tournament Monday.

“As far as (being) a point guard, it’s amazing having different people step up at different times,” Dean said. “(It) makes our team hard to guard.”

Dean – who UCLA announced will be eligible to play another season next year after transferring from Texas Tech in 2017 – has averaged 16.8 points and 7.1 assists per game in the Bruins’ latest eight contests.

[RELATED: Women’s basketball guard Japreece Dean transferred to UCLA in search of victory]

But UCLA hasn’t played Maryland in over a decade.

“It’s crazy because it’s probably one of the only teams I haven’t really seen play,” Dean said. “Because I watch a lot of basketball too, but I have not really seen Maryland play.”

In Maryland’s first-round win over No. 14 seed Radford on Saturday, the Terps scored 40 of its 73 total points from the paint, but also spread the floor to make 50 percent of their 3s in the second half.

The Big 10 regular-season champions are in the NCAA tournament for the ninth consecutive year and have eight Sweet 16 appearances under coach Brenda Frese.

“I know that Maryland has been one of the top teams this year,” said sophomore forward Michaela Onyenwere. “They have great players – players I had played against in (Amateur Athletic Union) back in the day, so I’ve kind of watched their growth.”

Onyenwere has scored 20 or more 16 times this season and became just the fourth player in UCLA history to reach 600 points in a single season.

Maryland guard Kaila Charles – who coach Cori Close said reminds her of Onyenwere – is averaging 16.8 points per game on the season and dropped a career-high 36 points in Maryland’s Big Ten tournament championship game loss to Iowa.

“She is just so versatile,” Close said. “She reminds me in some ways of (Onyenwere), in the fact that she’s explosive. She can hit you in three-level scoring, not maybe as much from the outside, but she’s capable.”

UCLA will have the opportunity to reach its fourth consecutive Sweet 16 appearance after advancing to its first Elite Eight since 1999 last season. The winner of Monday’s matchup will take on No. 2 seed UConn in the Albany regional Friday.

“We’ve come a long way and that we are peaking at a great time,” Dean said. “So I think just having the confidence in ourselves and knowing that we’re a great team as well.”

Baseball finishes weekend home sweep of Arizona, defends No. 1 spot in nation

With Ryan Garcia finally back to full strength, the Bruins rode his arm to victory.

No. 1 UCLA baseball (17-4, 5-1 Pac-12) completed the sweep against Arizona (13-10, 2-4) with a 3-1 victory Sunday after 10-5 and 12-10 wins in the previous two games. After scoring 8.5 runs per game over their past four, the Bruins scored just three in the series finale but were able to pull out the victory in Garcia’s first weekend start of the season.

The junior right-hander made his season debut against Oklahoma State on March 9 in a scoreless, one-inning relief appearance after missing 12 games with a flexor injury. On March 12, he got the start against Long Beach State, but only went two innings and 30 pitches deep. His longest day of the season was a 4 2/3 inning relief appearance against Oregon State, in which he threw 72 pitches and allowed two earned runs.

Garcia threw 7 1/3 scoreless frames Sunday, starting with 3 1/3 hitless innings. He let up a single with one down in the fourth but forced the next batter into a double play to retire the side in order. That would be the only hit he allowed all day, with the final Wildcat to reach base safely.

The junior left with a one-run lead, courtesy of a solo shot from junior first baseman Michael Toglia in the seventh. After junior right-hander Kyle Mora let up a game-tying RBI single in the eighth, junior left fielder Jack Stronach slapped the ball deep to right field for a game-winning, two-run home run.

But Garcia wasn’t the only UCLA starter to give the Arizona bats trouble.

Sophomore right-hander Zach Pettway entered Friday with a 2.67 ERA after tossing seven scoreless innings against then-No. 3 Oregon State on March 15. Pettway went seven deep against against the Wildcats, this time picking up a season-high 10 strikeouts and lowering his ERA to 2.66.

Redshirt junior right-hander Jack Ralston – who owned a 1.86 ERA before the series – didn’t fare as well Saturday. Ralston allowed a season-high seven runs in a season-low three innings, letting Arizona jump out to a 5-4 lead. The Wildcats extended their lead to 10-8 before sophomore right-hander Michael Townsend got pulled in the fifth.

UCLA had three extra-base hits through five innings but posted three more over the next three innings to take the lead. Junior second baseman Chase Strumpf jacked his fourth home run of the year to tie the game at 10 in the sixth.

Arizona coach Jay Johnson got tossed in the bottom of the eighth with the game still tied, but after back-to-back walks to start the inning, UCLA took the lead for good on a wild pitch and an RBI double by Toglia.

UCLA totaled 32 hits and a .337 batting average in the series, with 11 different Bruins picking up at least one RBI.

Diver brings home program’s first NCAA individual title at championships

Maria Polyakova is an NCAA champion.

The redshirt senior led No. 20 UCLA swim and dive (8-3, 4-3 Pac-12) at the NCAA Championships this past week in Austin, Texas, taking home the individual title in the 3-meter to become the program’s first-ever individual diving national champion.

“(It’s) the best feeling ever,” Polyakova said. “Throughout the competition I was really calm and my coach put a lot of trust in me, and I just trusted him and myself.”

Polyakova kicked off the NCAAs with a second-place finish in the 1-meter, scoring 346.90. Senior Eloise Belanger also finished in the top five in the 1-meter, scoring a new season-best of 320.80.

When it came to the 3-meter, Polyakova finished with a final score of 396.00 – less than three points behind her program record and over 15 points ahead of the second-place finisher, Brooke Schultz of Arkansas.

“I think the biggest difference-maker was really in her third round when she did one of the best reverses she has ever done in a meet,” said diving coach Tom Stebbins. “She often does that stuff in practice, but she just hasn’t ever done it that well in a meet and when she did that, all of a sudden the air kind of went out of the room and everybody else started to make mistakes.”

The only Bruin to ever win an NCAA diving title was Doug Shaffer in 1986, who is the current diving coach at LSU.

“We had set this as a goal a couple of years ago – finding a way to bring an NCAA title back to UCLA,” Stebbins said. “It was something that had never been done on the women’s side.”

Belanger also posted a lifetime-best score of 378.75 to secure fourth place in the 3-meter, missing out on a top-two finish by less than two points.

On the final day of the championships, Belanger finished ninth in platform, making her the highest-scoring diver at the NCAAs.

“To put herself into a position where she could really be excellent and to perform the way that she did was really gratifying for me,” Stebbins said. “I’m hoping for her because she has goals beyond collegiate diving as well. I hope that this will serve her well moving forward.”

On the swimming side, freshman Claire Grover notched the best individual performance, finishing 22nd in the preliminaries for the 50-yard freestyle Thursday.

Grover, freshman Delaney Smith and junior Maisie Jameson swam a season best in the preliminaries for the 400-yard relay Saturday to take 25th place. Senior Sandra Soe also swam the mile for the last time in her collegiate career Saturday and finished in 33rd place.

As a team, the Bruins took 17th place in the NCAA Championships. Polyakova won the award for CSCAA Diver of the Year and Stebbins was named the CSCAA Diving Coach of the Year.

“(It’s) the best way to end my career,” Polyakova said. “I just performed. I knew that I could and I did it.”

Propelled by sophomore star, track and field breaks records at Aztec Invitational

The Bruins’ results from this weekend were headlined by one thrower in particular.

UCLA track and field sent 12 throwers and five pole vaulters to compete at the Aztec Invitational in San Diego this weekend. Sophomore thrower Alyssa Wilson entered Friday with six event victories and returned with three more after her performances on Saturday. She is now listed in the UCLA all-time top 10 in five throwing events.

“I don’t really count wins,” Wilson said. “At the end of the day, it’s about (setting personal records) and making the team look good.”

Wilson opened the weekend with a personal-best 68.11-meter toss in the hammer throw, breaking the UCLA outdoor program record by two inches as well as the Aztec Invitational facility record.

“It was great to be able to get a nice (personal record) on my first meet and come away with the school record,” Wilson said.

After posting distances of roughly 60 meters in the discus warmups, Wilson set personal bests on each of her first three tosses and landed on UCLA’s top-10 list for the event with her third throw of 56.58 meters.

“Overall, it was a pretty good series,” Wilson said. “I had a lot of far discus warmups and then the nerves kind of hit me and I just had to refocus. … I knew that I would break (my personal record) this season, it was just a matter of fact of when it would happen.”

Wilson ended the day with a first-place throw of 16.12 meters in the shot put.

The Bruins posted another first-place finish in the javelin – an event not in Wilson’s repertoire – after a 44.27-meter heave from sophomore Ilaria Casorotto .

Casorotto saw an improvement of nearly 10 feet on her final two throws since her performance at the Willie Williams Classic in Tuscon, Arizona, on March 14.

“That was the best part of the weekend (for me),” Casorotto said. “Even if last weekend I had a bad performance, the work during this week was very focused and we paid attention to a lot of details.”

Freshman thrower Otito Ogbonnia led the shot put field after two flights, but his teammate redshirt sophomore Nate Esparza ousted him with a 19.05-meter throw to round out the first-place finishes for the Bruins. Ogbonnia eclipsed a personal best on his fifth throw with a second-place hurl of 18.44 meters.

Despite not competing, redshirt senior throwers Dotun Ogundeji and Ashlie Blake, and senior thrower Justin Stafford, attended the meet to support their teammates and cheer them on during events.

“I like how the seniors, (Ogundeji, Stafford and Blake) have been there to encourage the younger athletes,” said throwing coach John Frazier. “Just creating the atmosphere of a championship team.”