Beach volleyball claims second straight NCAA title, UCLA’s 117th

This post was updated May 5 at 2:23 p.m.

GULF SHORES, Ala. — Abby Van Winkle crouched down and slammed the sand after the ball hit the ground.

“I knew I was going to stuff (USC’s Alexandra Poletto),” Van Winkle said. “I needed to take revenge on her, because I got blocked a few times.”

Senior Zana Muno fell on top of the freshman for a hug as No. 2 seed UCLA (35-3) swept No. 1 seed USC (32-6) 3-0 on Sunday afternoon, earning the school’s 117th NCAA title. The Bruins bounced back from a loss in the Pac-12 championship last week to win their second consecutive national championship.

The court three pair, Muno and Van Winkle, won 22-20, 21-13 to clinch the dual for UCLA.

“Everybody rushed to our court and I heard people saying, ‘One more,’” Muno said. “I gave her a pretty easy serve because I wanted to be able to defend her since we did such a job on defense this week. We definitely knew (that we had dual point), and we were excited.”

Senior Izzy Carey and freshman Lindsey Sparks gave the Bruins their first point of the dual with a 21-16, 21-15 court five win that ended with Carey’s final career ace. The pair finished the season with a 13-match winning streak to finish 26-2.

The Bruins took an early 2-0 lead after the first flight. Juniors Savvy Simo and Madi Yeomans took the court four match 21-16, 21-19 when USC’s Maja Kaiser committed an unforced error, missing a kill wide.

UCLA took courts four and five against USC in last weekend’s Pac-12 championship – but lost on courts one through three in the second flight as the Trojans won the conference title.

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“(We) come up short at the Pac-12 championship, where USC was playing great volleyball,” said coach Stein Metzger. “I have to hand it to this team because they really came together and came out confident. … The reason they were able to do that was because they have such a close bond.”

UCLA swept the first sets on courts one through three after senior Sarah Sponcil and junior Lily Justine came back from a 15-10 deficit to win 21-18 on court two. The duo led in the second set when the Bruins clinched the victory.

Seniors Nicole and Megan McNamara took the first set over Abril Bustamante and Tina Graudina – the pair that has handed the twins their only four losses of the season. The McNamaras won the first set 21-19, while the second was truncated.

Metzger said the weather in Gulf Shores worked in favor of the Bruins on Sunday.

“We have a different style (than USC) – we have to win with ball control and speed,” Metzger said. “Out here today, we had the advantage because the wind came up and our team was very excited about playing on an open beach with the wind.”

USC’s courts one, two and three were 20-0 after the Trojans fell to No. 8 seed Stetson in the opening round that forced them to play through the elimination bracket, but could not win a single set in the championship dual.

“Last year was our first national championship so it was special in that way,” Metzger said. “This year was special in that we have five seniors that have been with us and helped develop and build this program through their hard work and dedication. To see them go out like this is incredible.”

Men’s tennis advances to NCAA round of 16 with sweep of Oklahoma State

The Bruins haven’t dropped a point in their first two rounds of play.

No. 11 seed UCLA men’s tennis (19-5, 8-0 Pac-12) claimed a victory over Oklahoma State (16-12, 1-4 Big 12) by a score of 4-0. The Bruins advanced to the round of 16 in the NCAA tournament with their win.

After its 4-0 against Grand Canyon on Friday, UCLA has not lost a point in NCAA play. Coach Billy Martin said he never expected his team – which regularly features at least three freshmen in the starting lineup – to advance past the first two rounds.

“These guys have exceeded all my expectations,” Martin said. “When (sophomore Connor Hance) went down (because of injury), I really thought we were going to have a rebuilding year. If someone (earlier in the season) said we were going to be in the round of 16, I would have been jumping for joy, and I still am now.”

UCLA claimed the first point of the match in doubles play. The No. 2-ranked doubles team of senior Maxime Cressy and sophomore Keegan Smith won 6-4 against Oklahoma State’s Mathieu Scaglia and Maxim Tybar. Cressy and Smith have not lost in doubles this year.

Freshman Patrick Zahraj and sophomore Bryce Pereira’s 6-4 win over Artur Dubinski and Luke Hammond gave the Bruins the doubles point. It took the Bruins three match points.

“At 5-3, we were on serve and it was our chance to finish it,” Zahraj said. “They played really well on these match points, but we had a good feeling about bouncing back and breaking them at 5-4.”

Martin said he thought the doubles point against Oklahoma State would be especially important.

“It was going to be hard to win four singles matches, let alone three, so I was very absorbed in doing everything we could to win doubles,” Martin said.

The top three courts provided the remaining three wins for the Bruins. Freshman Govind Nanda at No. 3 singles gave the Bruins their first win in singles with a victory over Scaglia, 6-1, 6-4.

Smith on court No. 2 was the second Bruin to finish. After an argument with the match official over stoppage of play, Smith launched a ball out of the stadium in the subsequent game – he received a code violation for ball abuse as he trailed 1-3.

“I was upset about (my argument with the referee), and I showed a little too much emotion and got the point penalty,” Smith said. “I shouldn’t (hit the ball out of the court), but sometimes it helps. You need to release the emotion. If you let it burrow inside you, you’ll play badly.”

Like the match against Grand Canyon, Cressy provided the clinching win for UCLA with his 6-1, 6-3 defeat of Matej Vocel.

UCLA will face No. 6 seed Baylor on Friday in Waco, Texas.

“Every match from here on out, we are not expected to win,” Martin said. “We go out loose and we have no pressure.”

Women’s tennis starts NCAA tournament with dominating sweep of Northern Arizona

The Bruins took all six first sets in singles en route to a sweep over the Lumberjacks.

No. 7 UCLA women’s tennis (19-7, 8-2 Pac-12) whitewashed Northern Arizona (15-9, 9-1 Big Sky) in the first round of the NCAA championships Saturday afternoon to set up a second round encounter against LSU (17-11, 5-8 SEC).

The Bruins dropped only one set in doubles and singles play combined – on court two in doubles play where No. 11 duo of freshman Elysia Bolton and redshirt junior Jada Hart fell 6-1.

“Unfortunately, Elysia (Bolton) and I ran into a team that was playing super aggressive and there wasn’t a lot we could do,” Hart said. “Incorporating more lobbing, increase our first serve percentage and changing the pace will help us for tomorrow.”

UCLA’s 13-game doubles point winning streak seemed to be in danger when the No. 5 senior combination of Gabby Andrews and Ayan Broomfield squandered a set point at 5-4 on court one after the Bruins and Lumberjacks split doubles on courts two and three.

“They definitely came out hitting and playing really well,” Broomfield said. “Lots of energy. When it came down to Gabby (Andrews) and I, we had to pull through. They came back a bit so we just had to fight and we got through it.”

The senior duo broke right back and held their serve to secure the doubles point with a 7-5 victory.

Senior Alaina Miller dealt the first blow in singles prevailing 6-4, 6-1 win on court four.

No. 45 Hart was down 3-1 in the first set against Northern Arizona’s Chiara Tomasetti on court in singles. Hart did not drop a single game for the rest of the match putting the Bruins up 3-0 via a 6-3, 6-0 triumph.

Moments later, Broomfield, with a heavily taped right knee, sent the Bruins through to a second round showdown against the Tigers with a 6-1, 6-3 win. It was the Clemson transfer’s second clinching victory in three matches.

“My knee’s not great; it’s not 100%,” Broomfield said. “But it’s the last couple matches of my senior year. I’ll do what I can to help us move forward. It was good to wrap it up quickly and get ready for tomorrow.”

LSU has lost five of its last eight matches. They sport two top-100 players in their singles lineup.

“This is single elimination,” said coach Stella Sampras Webster. “If we’re not successful and don’t get those four points then we’re done for the season so that’s always on the back of everyone’s mind. There’s a lot of noise. Lots of distractions. It’s important that we stay in our bubble.”

The Bruins will be back in action 1 p.m. on Sunday at the Los Angeles Tennis Center against the Tigers.

No Offense, But: The 2019 USAC election

This year’s Undergraduate Students Association Council featured the lowest voter turnout in at least the past decade, an eye-popping number of empty seats on the council table and a remarkable lack of fanfare. The Daily Bruin’s Opinion editor Keshav Tadimeti, senior staff columnist Abhishek Shetty, columnists Edgerrin Panaligan and Enming Zhang, and campus politics editor Melissa Morris discuss why that happened in the annual “No Offense, But” USAC election postmortem.

Beach volleyball’s sweep of LSU sends UCLA to NCAA championship final

GULF SHORES, Ala. — The Bruins were dancing on tables at the NCAA banquet Thursday – and they’re still dancing.

No. 2 seed UCLA beach volleyball (34-3) swept No. 5 seed LSU (31-7) 3-0 on Saturday morning to advance to Sunday’s NCAA championship final. The Bruins put up all three dual points within 90 seconds of each other.

“There’s so much excitement and emotion and media and big screens and everything here that you don’t see in a normal tournament,” said coach Stein Metzger.  “Each game (the players) have gotten better and better at staying focused on their court alone…and we did that best by far (today) and I thought we played our best.”

UCLA took the first sets on all five courts, and went on to take three courts in straight sets. The Bruin pairs on courts one and four were ahead when UCLA clinched the dual.

Senior Zana Muno and freshman Abby Van Winkle scored first for UCLA, winning 21-15, 21-12 on court three.

Senior Sarah Sponcil and junior Lily Justine put the Bruins up 2-0 with a straight set victory. A cross-court kill to the right by Justine gave the pair its first win of the weekend.

“I’m just really proud of (Justine) and I personally, because we were kind of struggling (yesterday),” Sponcil said. “It just seems like we’re running on all cylinders right now.”

The court five match decided the dual for the second consecutive time. Senior Izzy Carey and freshman Lindsey Sparks clinched the victory for UCLA with a 21-8, 21-18 win after the duo clinched for the Bruins against Florida State on Friday.

“We don’t call (Carey and Sparks) ‘team textbook’ for nothing,” Metzger said. “They’re total students of the game and they’re extremely disciplined. As it gets windier out here, I think that makes them better because they are so disciplined with their ball control.”

Seniors Nicole and Megan McNamara are 4-0 all time against the Tiger’s court one pair – Claire Coppola and Kristen Nuss – but were unable to finish in Saturday’s match.

The match between juniors Savvy Simo and Madi Yeomans and LSU’s Maddie Ligon and Olivia Beyer was also suspended with the Bruins ahead 21-16, 20-15.  Simo and sophomore transfer Lea Monkhouse – UCLA’s usual court four pair – were 0-2 against LSU this season.

“Me and (Yeomans) are really just going off right now,”  Simo said. “Our big thing is just staying patient because in a lot of the sets we’ve played, we’ve been down to start.”

The Bruins will face the winner of the elimination bracket – either No.1 seed USC, No. 7 seed Hawai’i or LSU – in Sunday’s final at 11:00 a.m.