Weekend in Preview: March 1

Beach volleyball
Jacqueline Dzwonczyk, Daily Bruin reporter

The Bruins remain undefeated after their six opening matches, five of which were against ranked opponents – something they have never done before.

No. 1 UCLA beach volleyball (6-0) will look to continue its winning streak in Tucson, Arizona, where it will compete in the Pac-12 South tournament. UCLA will face Arizona State (2-1), Washington (0-0) and No. 11 California (2-0).

“We’ve been tested by Pepperdine and USC – even Hawai’i was tough even though it was a 5-0 win for us,” said coach Stein Metzger. “I feel like our confidence is building as we’re pulling out these close matches and we’ll be ready for this weekend.”

Then-No. 2 UCLA went 4-0 in the Pac-12 South tournament last season, including 5-0 wins over Arizona State and then-No. 16 California, and a 4-1 victory over then-No. 19 Washington. The Bruins are undefeated in all-time matches against the Golden Bears and the Huskies and have only dropped one match to the Sun Devils since the program started in 2013.

Arizona State played two top-20 teams Saturday, falling 5-0 to then-No. 15 Loyola Marymount before defeating then-No. 16 Grand Canyon 3-2. UCLA will be the first ranked team California will face this season.

The Bruins will open the weekend against the Sun Devils at 8 a.m. on Saturday.

Men’s golf
Michelle Murakami, Daily Bruin contributor

The Bruins will play in Sin City this weekend.

UCLA men’s golf will participate in the Southern Highlands Collegiate in Las Vegas. The Bruins finished in third after their most recent tournament, the Southwestern Invitational in Westlake Village, California.

Freshman Sean Maruyama tied for fourth and finished seventh with 3-under 213.

“I was hitting pretty well, and the second day I was able to get around the course really well,” Maruyama said. “I think I need to just work on my consistency for this weekend.”

At the Southern Highlands Collegiate in 2018, the Bruins finished in 10th with an 11-over 875. Despite Maruyama not being around last season, he said his teammates gave him some good tips heading into the tournament and hopes to improve in 2019.

“(The upperclassmen) gave me some tips and notes on how to hit certain holes, what the greens would be like and navigating around which really helped in my success and the team’s success,” Maruyama said. “Even though we didn’t win this past weekend, I think that we’re trending upwards and we’re excited for the upcoming tournament.”

Coach Derek Freeman mentioned a few things that the Bruins need to work on.

“(We) just have a few things that we have to clean up and if we can do that then we’ll start to play really well,” Freeman said.

The Bruins will play in Las Vegas at the Southern Highlands Collegiate from Sunday to Tuesday.

Women’s water polo
Jack Perez, Daily Bruin staff

As they enter conference play, the Bruins have a chance for revenge in their first conference game.

No. 4 UCLA women’s water polo (16-3) will kick off Mountain Pacific Sports Federation play against No. 3 California (10-2) on Sunday at Spieker Aquatics Center.

The Bruins and Golden Bears met last weekend at the Barbara Kalbus Invitational in the third-place game. The Bears took a 4-0 lead at the half, but the Bruins shut out their opponents in the second half to send the game to overtime.

Junior attacker Maddie Musselman scored her second goal of the game to give the Bruins the lead in overtime, but the Bears scored three unanswered goals to seal the victory.

Coach Adam Wright said the Bruins need to not hesitate when they have a goal-scoring opportunity if they are to get a different result against the Bears at home.

“You’ve got to want to shoot the ball,” Wright said. “Credit to Cal’s defense, but part of it is us putting ourselves in tough situations. Our timing, our rotations, all these things have to improve.”

UCLA has finished off tournament play until the MPSF championships on April 26. The Bruins have played at an invitational in five of the past six weekends and face conference opponents in six of their next seven games.

In the past two tournaments, the Bruins faced each of their rivals in the top four and went 0-3. UCLA has allowed an average of nine goals in those three games while scoring at a rate of four goals a game.

Wright said while he will continue to try to get game time for as much of his roster as he can, he understands the reality of shortening the bench in close games.

“We still have to continue to build a foundation,” Wright said. “Everybody’s got to be ready to go. Usually towards the end of the game, the rotation does get shorter, but everybody has to be ready.”

Bruins poise to race past Antelopes in men’s volleyball matchup

The Bruins have a chance to keep their top spot in the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation.

No. 6 UCLA men’s volleyball (13-4, 5-0 MPSF) will face Grand Canyon (7-10, 0-5) on Friday night at Antelope Gymnasium in Phoenix.

This will be the first match of the season between the Bruins and the Antelopes.

“Grand Canyon is a good team, so we’re going to have to come out and play our best game to beat them, and we will,” said redshirt junior opposite Brandon Rattray.

UCLA defeated Grand Canyon in both of its matchups last season, holding them below a .300 hitting percentage in each match. The Bruins averaged seven aces and 13 blocks in the two matches, compared to the Antelopes’ 1.5 aces and 4.8 blocks.

Grand Canyon has a 3-2 home record this season, despite losing its last five games, all against conference opponents. The Antelopes are led by outside hitter Christian Janke, who has posted a team-high 213 kills this season. As a team, Grand Canyon has averaged 2.2 aces, 7.1 blocks, and a .155 hitting percentage across their five-game losing streak.

UCLA currently holds sole possession of the No. 1 spot in conference standings after defeating No. 4 Pepperdine (11-3, 4-1) in five sets Wednesday night. Junior outside hitter Austin Matautia – who led the Bruins with a career-high 22 kills against the Waves – said UCLA has to stay focused.

“Anyone could beat us and any time we play we have to come in with our A-game and if we don’t then we’re vulnerable,” Matautia said.

The Bruins have averaged eight aces, 7.7 blocks and a .376 hitting percentage in their last three games. Rattray – who has recorded a team-high 177 kills on the season – said UCLA must continue to be aggressive in order to carry on its recent success.

“We have to keep winning,” Rattray said. “Every game from here on out, even the teams we played that aren’t as great, they’re very important matches. Any night, any given team can come out and play great, so we have to be on our toes and continue to train really hard and keep moving forward.”

UCLA coach John Speraw said the Bruins have to remain poised with seven remaining conference matches on their schedule, five of which are away games.

“We just have to go to Grand Canyon and play well,” Speraw said. “We have to make sure that we’re focused. Obviously now we have a little bit of an advantage, but that means we have to execute on it. We just can’t all of a sudden think that this is over. We have more work to do.”

Women’s basketball shoots for success ahead of seniors’ last games

The Bruins will enter their final weekend of the regular season.

No. 25 UCLA women’s basketball (17-11, 10-6 Pac-12) will face Utah (20-7, 9-7) on Friday and Colorado (12-15, 2-14) on Sunday for Senior Day. Starting senior guards Kennedy Burke and Japreece Dean and redshirt senior forward Lajahna Drummer will play their final two games at Pauley Pavilion this weekend.

“I’m just grateful that I got to spend these four years with this group of people, and it is an experience that I will never forget,” Burke said. “I just love being a Bruin.”

Coach Cori Close said she expects the team to perform well this weekend for the seniors.

“My entire focus this weekend is this is the last regular season weekend for us to get better,” Close said. “It is also the last time that our seniors ever get to play in Pauley, so you better honor them with that.”

The Bruins have not lost to the Utes since Dec. 1, 2001. The last time UCLA faced then-No.17 Utah on Feb. 10, the Bruins were down by as many as seven points in the second quarter, but an 11-0 run that started late in the third quarter put UCLA on top for the remainder of the contest.

The Bruins logged 40 points in the fourth quarter – a school record for the most points recorded in a single period – to secure a 100-90 victory.

Redshirt freshman guard Lindsey Corsaro said UCLA is relying on strong defensive performances to prevent Utah from having another dominant start.

“They got off to an early start,” Corsaro said. “We struggled defensively in the first half – especially stopping them in transition – so that is going to be huge for us.”

Despite shooting 73.33 percent in the fourth quarter, the Bruins allowed Utes forward Megan Huff to log a double-double on the night, tying her career-high 13 rebounds to complement 23 points.

Huff leads Utah in points per game and has scored in double-digits in all but one contest this season, including a 25-point performance in Utah’s last outing against Washington State.

Burke said UCLA will have to communicate effectively on defense to limit Huff’s opportunities.

“The most important thing is to talk on defense,” Burke said. “(Huff) is either going to drive or shoot the basket because (she) is good at both. So, we just have to be aware and communicate with each other.”

UCLA will close out the season against Colorado.

Similar to its start against the Utes, the Bruins trailed the Buffaloes early in the game earlier this season, facing a 20-11 deficit going into the second quarter. But UCLA gained momentum in the second quarter, outscoring Colorado 20-11 to tie the game at 31 going into the half.

UCLA held Colorado to shooting under 30 percent from the field in the second half, securing a 64-60 comeback victory.

Corsaro said this weekend’s games will reveal how much the Bruins have improved in the past month.

“(Utah and Colorado) are both really good teams,” Corsaro said. “So, it is going to be a test of our focus and to see how much we have grown since we played them last time because those were really competitive games.”

UCLA will have the opportunity to finish out the season on a pair of wins this weekend when they face Utah at 7 p.m on Friday and Colorado at 12 p.m. on Sunday in the seniors’ last home-court outing.

Gymnastics takes home stage in meet that could dethrone Oklahoma from No. 1 spot

This post was updated March 3 at 2:36 p.m.

The Bruins are looking at a rematch of last year’s NCAA championship meet.

No. 2 UCLA gymnastics (7-0, 6-0 Pac-12) will travel to No. 1 Oklahoma (6-0, 1-0 Big 12) on Sunday, with the Bruins coming off a win over then-undefeated No. 4 Utah (7-1, 5-1 Pac-12) on Saturday. The Sooners will be the Bruins’ first opponent this year to also have surpassed the 198 mark.

In 2018, UCLA met Oklahoma at Pauley Pavilion early in the season and suffered a narrow loss, scoring 197.950 points to the Sooners’ 198.050. However, Oklahoma’s position as the current No. 1 team does not change UCLA’s attitude.

“I don’t think it adds any pressure but I definitely feel the excitement in the gym, to be able to come out this weekend and compete at our best,” said junior Kyla Ross. “I feel like we’re at a really good spot in the season. We’ve consistently been getting better, and being able to hit two 198s in a row has really boosted our confidence (so) I feel like we’re on the right track.”

Ross posted her third perfect 10 on uneven bars Saturday against Utah and has notched a 10 on both bars and vault this season.

Despite the buzz surrounding Sunday’s meet, associate head coach Chris Waller said the Bruins are continuing to keep their focus away from their opponent.

“We just need to keep reminding ourselves of what’s important,” Waller said. “It’s easy through social media and everything else to get wrapped up into what everybody else wants us to do, which is pay attention to our opponent. The moment you’re thinking about your opponent in gymnastics is the moment you’re not thinking about your own team and things go badly.”

This tactic is highlighted by the team’s undefeated record and its win over a top-10 opponent.

“I think the biggest thing at Utah was really keeping our team in our own zone and just keeping our Bruin bubble strong,” said junior Madison Kocian. “We didn’t want any energy to be dispersed or to really be focused on the other team because at this point in the season, it’s really just dialing in on what we know we can do and not worrying about what everyone else can do.”

Like UCLA, Oklahoma has dominated its competition. Oklahoma beat two top-25 teams by over two points and defeated then-No. 2 Florida.

The Sooners also have their share of standout athletes that are nationally ranked. Maggie Nichols is ranked second on uneven bars and ninth on balance beam, while Olivia Trautman is third on floor and fifth on vault. Additionally, Nicole Lehrmann is fifth on uneven bars.

This may seem daunting, but Waller said this matchup against UCLA’s toughest opponent comes at the current top of the team’s upward trajectory.

“We got to get our groove going and then bam, we have Utah at their house and that prepares us for Oklahoma,” Waller said. “It’s perfect because it’s great timing for us. We’re prepared.”

Lack of study spaces at UCLA imposes unnecessary stress on students

There’s truly no worse feeling than mustering up enough energy to carry your bag filled with books to a study spot on campus, only to find hundreds of other students had the same idea.

It’s all too common for students to feel angered by the lack of spaces to complete their work on campus or the Hill. The Hill’s study spaces and libraries on campus can often become crowded, making it almost impossible for students to find a spot to study in peace – and have some personal space.

The university’s communal computers are mostly limited to libraries, and tutoring is elusive for students who need it most. Existing spaces are also not easily accessible for students who live off campus.

These issues are yet to be addressed by UCLA, but that hasn’t stopped it from recently announcing the construction of a new academic center for student-athletes. Mo Ostin, a UCLA alumnus, donated $15 million and UCLA has pledged to fundraise $20 million more to allow UCLA Athletics to proceed with this project. The new center will be built adjacent to the J.D. Morgan Center, though UCLA has consistently claimed space on campus is limited and new building additions are not feasible.

There exists no one central location where students have adequate space to study and access much-needed academic services. Larger areas – such as The Study at Hedrick and the campus’ various libraries – are not enough to satisfy students’ needs either, because they are rendered useless to students who haven’t camped out for a spot. These locations also fail to offer academic services that students could benefit from.

A one-stop shop that provides easy access to academic support would satisfy students’ needs in a way that study rooms the size of a classic triple can’t.

Katherine Alvarado, a UCLA spokesperson, said UCLA has not even considered the benefits of a new academic center for students.

UCLA clearly has the means to at least examine the clear benefits a space like this could provide, as demonstrated by its fervent commitment to soliciting donations to supplement the new academic center for student-athletes.

After all, students have been talking about lack of campus study spaces for quite some time.

Mizna Akbar, a second-year human biology and society student, said the limited number of study spaces on the Hill is a real problem.

“There’s definitely a lack of study space and resources for students here. It’s already very crowded everywhere,” Akbar said.

The lack of support for students is baffling. Undergraduates should not have to choose between studying in a loud dorm room or walking late at night to an overcrowded study spot where it takes them the same amount of time to find a seat as it does to study for their upcoming exam. Lack of a central space can cause students to waste much-needed time and energy walking long distances across campus to find study spaces – sometimes in obscure campus discussion rooms – or to access academic services and technology.

David Martinez, a second-year civil engineering student, said UCLA is doing a good job by opening Bruin Plate and Feast at Rieber late at night for study space, but the addition of a student academic center would help spread out the student population and alleviate the problem of overcrowding.

“If they were to add another space or create a new facility that would diversify the population everywhere so that there is less people in one area, that means you wouldn’t have to go all the way to Powell to get a spot,” he said.

Martinez is right: Adding ad hoc study spaces here and there isn’t enough to fully serve the growing student body’s need for a place to study. While UCLA has opened up outdoor study spaces near Renée and David Kaplan Hall and Powell Library, these are temporary solutions to the larger problem of lack of adequate space on campus for students to complete their work. Just ask the students trying to find a place to study during this cold and rainy winter.

The highest ranked public university shouldn’t settle for mediocrity in creating necessary services and spaces when there is clearly room for improvement. When students have inadequate space to study, it creates unnecessary stress, which is reflected in their academic performance. A center for Bruins that provides more individual and group study spaces would give students another valuable resource that would solve the problem of overcrowding on campus.

There are certainly difficulties that accompany building a new facility, such as gathering the funds needed to build it and determining an adequate location. But these considerations certainly weren’t an issue when it came to the student-athletes’ new center. They shouldn’t be for a study space for all students, either.

For students to succeed at a world-class institution like UCLA, they need all the support they can get.

What they don’t need is a mandatory scavenger hunt for an empty desk when they have midterms coming up.

UCLA needs to address housing availability with its fast-growing student body

UCLA is playing Jenga with students.

And soon enough, it’ll all come crashing down.

UCLA’s large undergraduate population warrants the need for additional housing. More accessible housing has long been something both the administration and student body have agreed on. New housing projects have swelled to match the campus’ growing student body.

Upcoming housing projects include building dorms on the Lot 15 site, which will provide 1,781 beds; redeveloping an older building to construct the Margan Apartments, which will provide 216 beds; and constructing apartments in the southwest part of campus, which will provide 321 graduate beds and 1,958 upper-division undergraduate beds.

The cycle of adding new buildings, enrolling more students, using the revenue to add new buildings and proceeding to enroll more students has served UCLA well. But space on and around campus has been dwindling due to the university’s new buildings and projects. The situation becomes more dire when you consider the fact that today’s undergraduate body is hundreds of students larger than it was five years ago.

This is largely due to recent state mandates. The University of California accepted additional funding from California when it enrolled 10,000 more in-state students, spread across three years beginning in fall 2016. The increase in students inevitably leads to less room on campus and fewer housing options. More housing projects have to be proposed to account for a larger student population, which leads to less space on campus, forming a vicious cycle – the very same that UCLA had employed so successfully in the past.

This cycle of building new buildings and dealing with population problems as they come has worked but is unreliable in the upcoming years due to increasingly scarce space. The university needs to re-evaluate its policies in light of this and consider how it’s going to house students in the long term.

UCLA nonresident student population is capped at 22 percent, and it tends to reach that cap every year, said Gary Clark, UCLA’s undergraduate admissions director.

From an economic perspective, this makes sense: UCLA gets roughly $29,000 more in tuition from out-of-state students than in-state students, which is why the percentage of nonresident students was increasing until the state government capped it in 2017.

“Admissions rates for out-of-state students could potentially be a problem because the state isn’t mandated to admit a minimum number of nonresident students,” said Rashed Alkhlaifat, a third-year materials engineering student.

As a public university, UCLA’s first and foremost responsibility is to its students. Prioritizing out-of-state admissions because of the money it brings in contradicts that idea, especially considering we already have a housing problem on campus. UCLA can’t grow indefinitely, and Westwood’s community has already pushed against its growth.

The Agora building, a private housing venture in Westwood intended for students, was proposed to city planners at more than four times the height and three times the square footage allowed by the area’s zoning laws, inciting a petition against it from local homeowners.

By all intents and measures, The Agora indicates a point where housing can no longer match the student population. Projects like this should be unnecessary: They disrupt and disregard zoning laws. This is reflective of the root cause behind the overwhelming housing demand in Westwood: the student body’s size.

Anthony Andrade, a fourth-year economics student, said housing is a real issue on campus that new projects would help resolve.

“UCLA has expensive, competitive housing because of how many students we have,” Andrade said. “The solution is to keep building housing complexes.”

Freshman Bruins are guaranteed three years of housing and transfers are guaranteed one. Ideally, students should be guaranteed housing regardless of what year they’re in.

“A large part of the university’s goal is to guarantee four years of housing for freshmen and two years for transfers,” Clark said.

But this is a goal the university’s plans have yet to attain. The fact that this goal hasn’t been realized is indicative of UCLA’s inability to properly support the students it currently has. Additional housing addresses the problem we currently have, but it doesn’t ameliorate the problems we will have as the student body grows.

“I think (UCLA) tries to accommodate everyone – we try – but it’s simply too populated,” said Sydney To, a first-year physiological science student. “UCLA is already the smallest campus with the largest student body in the UC system.”

A decrease in out-of-state students’ enrollment rate would help offset mandates regarding in-state students, as well as help the university more quickly reach its goal of four years of guaranteed housing for freshmen and two years for transfers.

There will be a time when the university cannot continue to support a growing student body. Perhaps that time is now.

It’s undeniable UCLA would suffer from lowering the number of out-of-state students. But the school would be able to either slow down the timelines or halt projects in lieu of a larger undergraduate body, saving time and money in the process. More importantly, it’s UCLA’s responsibility to pay more attention to the students it has, not the students that it will have.

Students aren’t wooden blocks that can be pulled out and placed atop one another. And even if they were, UCLA is running out of space to stack them.

Play ‘Once on This Island’ to feature Caribbean culture, lessons on empathy

Stories can be passed around a campfire, be told across generations and unite communities, said Irvin Mason Jr. It was this notion that led him to direct the musical “Once on This Island.”

Based on a 1985 novel by Rosa Guy, the story takes place in the Caribbean Islands and follows Ti Moune, a girl who falls in love with a Frenchman of higher social standing. The show, presented by Color Box Production Company, is the first title of the spring season and will premier Saturday in the Northwest Campus Auditorium. Although the narrative does prominently feature a love story, Mason, a third-year theater student, said a prominent focus is the Caribbean traditions on the island and the way in which they bring the community together.

“What really drew me to this show was the idea that it takes a village to raise a child,” Mason said. “We see how the island community is so interconnected and how pivotal the notion of gods and deities are to the livelihood of the people.”

Born and raised in the U.S. Virgin Islands, Mason said the story’s French Antilles setting has a personal connection for him. As he first read the script, his hometown of St. Thomas was hit by hurricanes Maria and Irma. Coincidentally, the musical also opens with the community being ravaged by a hurricane, with its characters banding together in the aftermath. Although the islanders have lost a great deal, Mason said their ability to still see beauty in their world is what drives the play. Through dancing, singing and storytelling, the characters connect with their Caribbean roots and come together to restore their island, he said.

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Finding oneself through art and dance is an integral aspect of the production, said third-year theater student and the musical’s choreographer Sabrina Calderon. The narrative initially opens with a child crying because of the tumultuous storm. Village members come to her aid by telling her the story of Ti Moune, speaking of the heroine’s power to unite the island. Throughout the story, Calderon said the various characters, including gods and storytellers, form a kinship with Ti Moune, and learn from her opposition to classism. Calderon said the musical illustrates humanity’s need to connect.

“Art is a medicine and a universal language within itself,” Calderon said. “This show is all about community. … It is a testament that we need people to survive and that without your community you’re nothing.”

The musical celebrates communal ties, but also touches on issues of class and prejudice, emphasizing that society must dismantle such barriers to achieve peace, said Will Nazareno, a fourth-year music performance student and the show’s musical director. The island Ti Moune lives on – the Jewel of the Antilles – is segregated between the peasants and the lighter skinned descendants of French planters and their slaves. Growing up as an immigrant from the Philippines, Nazareno said he experienced colorism in his own community and is glad the topic will be addressed on stage.

“Within the play, there are aspects of social classes, colorism and the idea that there’s this predetermined notion of darker skinned people,” Nazareno said.

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Mason said he hopes to create a more accepting environment for students at UCLA by presenting narratives with underrepresented communities, like those in “Once on This Island.” Though it can be hard to learn more about other cultures, the story highlights the value of knowing your neighbor, he said.

“It’s so important for students to come see this show and to leave asking themselves, … ‘How can I be more well-rounded and understanding of the different communities that are here on campus?’” Mason said. “Because UCLA is all of our village and this village is raising us to be who we are.”