Non-Revenue Sports Bruin Review and Calendar
by Ryan Rosenblatt on Feb 9, 2009 2:20 PM PST
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PrintWomen's Gymnastics
The #2 Bruins were exposed to an illness two weeks ago that forced the cancellation of practice last Monday-Wednesday and the cancellation of the team's meet versus Stanford last weekend. The meet will not be made up, but the two teams will both compete in the Pac 10 Championships laster this season. This Sunday, the Bruins will host Washington, Cal St. Fullerton and Boise St. in a four team meet.
Women's Tennis
#3 UCLA went on the road for the first time last week and picked up a 5-2 win over Pepperdine in Malibu. The Bruins were scheduled to play UC Irvine last week as well, but that match was postponed due to rain and will be made up at a later date. This week, the Bruins (4-0) will head to Madison, Wisconsin for the National Team Indoors.
Women's Water Polo
The #3 Bruins split their four games last week. First, the Bruins beat #15 Long Beach St. 13-4 in Long Beach, then they headed to Palo Alto to compete in the Stanford Invitational. The Bruins opened the tournament with a 13-6 victory over #10 San Jose St., but they dropped their next two matches. UCLA lost to #4 Hawaii, ending their 46 match win streak at the Stanford Invitational, then they lost to #2 Stanford in the third place match. The Bruins (5-1) will host #6 San Diego St. and #11 Loyola Marymount this week.
Men's Tennis
For the second match in a row, the #4 Bruins dropped the doubles point and were forced to play from behind, but for the second match in a row, they came back to win. Two weeks ago it was a comeback versus Fresno St. and last week they had to make the same comeback versus San Diego St. Like the women, the men's team's (5-0) second match of the week was rained out and they too will compete in the National Team Indoors; however, their indoor competition will be be played in Chicago.
Softball
What was supposed to be a five game weekend turned into a four game weekend due to rain as the #4 Bruins opened up their season with three wins and a loss. The Bruins lost their first game of the season 2-1 to Purdue before bouncing back to defeat Indiana 10-2. Katie Schroeder his her first collegiate home run against Purdue then her second against Indiana. The next day, the Bruins played two more games and won both of them. They beat Cal Poly 6-1, then beat #25 San Diego St. 6-2 on an extra innings walk-off grand slam by Kaila Shull. This week the Bruins will travel to Nevada for five games in the UNLV Louisville Slugger Desert Classic, including gamers versus #5 Michigan and #11 Northwestern.
Men's Volleyball
#8 UCLA was in need of a win streak and they finally took a couple steps towards that win streak this week. It didn't look like this would be the week that the Bruins won a couple games when they lost the first two sets to #5 Stanford on Thursday, but the Bruins fought back to win the final three sets and defeat the Cardinal 34-36, 26-30, 30-21, 30-27, 15-11. On Friday the Bruins completed their perfect week with a four set win over Pacfiic to improve to 6-5 overall and 4-3 in conference play. The Bruins begin a four game road trip this week with a trip to Illinois where they'll play #14 Lewis and Loyola-Chicago.
Women's Basketball
The Bruins had a chance to take fourth place in the conference all alone and make a strong statement to the NCAA Tournament selection committee with a win over USC, but they were unable to make up a 21 halftime deficit and they lost 87-76. UCLA shot only 22% in the first half and despite 20 points from Doreena Campbell, couldn't make a comeback. Now fifth in the Pac 10, UCLA hosts Arizona and Arizona St. this week.
Men's Track and Field
UCLA went to Nebraska for the Frank Sevigne Husker Invitational and had a very productive weekend. Boldizsar Kocsor picked up a NCAA qualifying mark with the nation's fourth best weight throw of the year. Marlon Patterson ran a lifetime best in the mile, which gave him a NCAA provisional qualifying mark and Kevin Craddock ran the nation's fifth fastet time this year in the 60m hurdles to qualify for the NCAA's. The Bruins will head to Arizona this week for the Northern Arizona Classic.
Women's Track and Field
With the men in Nebraska, the women were in New York for the New Balance Invitational, where they shined in the long jump. Rhoda Watkins, 2007 NCAA Indoor and Outdoor champion, and Danielle Watson both jumped NCAA qualifying marks. The 4x400m team also picked up a NCAA qualifying time. This week the women will be in Arkansas for the Tyson Invitational.
Women's Golf
Top ranked UCLA will begin their 2009 spring season with the Regional Challenge at Palos Verdes Golf Club.
Women's Swimming and Diving
#21 UCLA will cap off the regular season with a visit to USC for a dual meet this Friday.
Calendar (all times pacific)
Monday, February 9
Women's Golf, Regional Challenge, ALl Day- Palos Verdes, CA
Wednesday, February 11
Women's Golf, Regional Challenge, ALl Day- Palos Verdes, CA
Thursday, February 12
Women's Basketball vs. Arizona, 7:00 pm- Pauley Pavilion
Women's Tennis, National Team Indoors, All Day- Madison, WI
Friday, February 13
Women's Swim and Dive vs. USC, All Day- Los Angeles, CA
Women's Water Polo vs. San Diego St., 3:00 pm- Sunset Rec. Center
Softball vs. UNLV, 6:00 pm- Las Vegas, NV
Men's Volleyball at Lewis, 5:00 pm- Romeoville, IL
Softball vs. Northwestern, 8:15 pm- Las Vegas, NV
Men's Tennis, National Team Indoors, All Day- Chicago, IL
Women's Tennis, National Team Indoors, All Day- Madison, WI
Women's Track, Tyson Invitational, All Day- Fayetteville, AR
Saturday, February 14
Softball vs. Michigan, 1:30 pm- Las Vegas, NV
Women's Basketball vs. Arizona St., 2:00 pm- Pauley Pavilion
Softball vs. Kentucky, 3:45 pm- Las Vegas, NV
Men's Volleyball at Loyola-Chicago, 5:00 pm- Chicago, IL
Men's Tennis, National Team Indoors, All Day- Chicago, IL
Women's Tennis, National Team Indoors, All Day- Madison, WI
Women's Track, Tyson Invitational, All Day- Fayetteville, AR
Men's Track, Northern Arizona Classic, All Day- Flagstaff, AZ
Sunday, February 15
Softball vs. S. Dakota St., 11:15 am- Henderson, NV
Women's Gymnastics vs. Wash., CS Fullerton, Boise St., 2:00 pm- Pauley Pavilion
Men's Tennis, National Team Indoors, All Day- Chicago, IL
Women's Tennis, National Team Indoors, All Day- Madison, WI
Ticket information for all sports can be found here while facility information and directions for all sports can be found here. GO BRUINS!!!
This is a FanPost and does not necessarily reflect the views of BruinsNation's (BN) editors. It does reflect the views of this particular fan though, which is as important as the views of BN's editors.
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Women's Golf note from the weekend
I was privileged, again, to play a round with the UCLA Women at the Palos Verdes Golf Club. They are outstanding young women, and the best of their generation, IMO. Not only great golfers but, as one of the seniors said (and a real accomplished golfer too), “The best memories of UCLA will be my classes and great professors. I just love going to school”. This is from a golfer who has won, while at UCLA, national tournaments, and been ranked among the very few best golfers in the NCAA year in and year out. She has the sport in its proper perspective, achieving near straight A’s in class, and doing it all.
Bill
BillSouthBay
I was going to
but ran out of time. I had to finish this up and get to work on my baseball preview because I’m heading out of town tomorrow (to Columbus for the US/Mexico WCQ). If I get enough of my baseball preview done tonight I’ll add comments on the soccer recruits. If you have thoughts on them, please share your thoughts and analysis.
by Ryan Rosenblatt on Feb 9, 2009 6:48 PM PST up reply actions
Why I haven't answered
How do I express a level of disappointment without appearing to critcize these young men?
But I’ll stick my neck out and say I am both uninspired and ambivalent about the incoming class. I believe that the emergence of the WCoast conference is canibalizing those potential recruits. (see Cal Poly – P. Islas) that the Bruins would of signed in the past. (Cal Poly’s team speed will be second to none on the West ) Cal’s class also appears to be much stronger (ie. Fitzgerald/Birnbaum/Ortega) and Santa Barbara is really getting after it with their Juco transfer and international strategy. ( I wish the Bruins would consider identifying an international player each signing class – A. Rose is evidence of a great sign)
On the plus side, Amobi is a great sign. And I am hoping beyond hope that CHoffman is the real deal. Candidly, I think a couple of the incoming class are suspect and I only say this as to their upside. Meaning, will their success at the youth level translate to the college game and will their early success compell them to continue to improve and be successful at the collegient level. I believe UCLA will have five players from the three-peat USYS National champions in Real So Cal after Raynr and Roman sign, so hopefully from a chemistry perspective, there will be some real nice synergy as a result of this.
What’s particularly worrisome from a recruiting perspective is just how fast and strong the West Coast Conference has become and I believe to the detriment of the Pac 10. It is a very attractive pitch to a potential recruit to pitch these kids on the big crowds that Cal Poly and UCSB are drawing as well as the competitiveness of the conference (4 NCAA bids last season vs. 2 Pac10). With the agressiveness of the WCC member schools, the risk is for the Bruins to rest on their past laurals and not have a alternative strategy or intensity to match this agressiveness. I am not sure what that alternative strategy is with UCLA crowds averaging 1200. Perhaps UCLA’s strength of schedule if the program can continue to compete (losing to Indy and Wake like we did last season didn’t help!).
Although I don’t agree, the UCLA recruiting effort has been critcized and labeled by some of it’s detractors as being “paper recruiters”. I surmise that this means kids are being recruited based on their press rather than adequately assessing and evaluating each player over time and a series of events. Again, I am not sure that is a fair statement.
As I have said before, I like the Ken Arena hire as I think it is smart to have a coach from the east that has an established network on that side of the country. I would however like to see more inroads in the soccer-rich state of Texas/ non-Residency Florida I am also curious why UCLA is not pulling players from Juco’s like powerhouse Yavapai like UCI has (Irving Garcia) or as UCSB has done. I am not condoning a make-over as in the UCSB strategy (I believe 3 Yavapai transfers this year) but as a point of emphasis, just how does an Yavapi alum Irving Garcia end up at UCI rather than at UCLA?
What I do like is what I perceive to be UCLA’s attempt to balance in it’s signings, NT caliber players with some home grown and “under the national radar talent”. But having said that, however how good this strategy, it is critical that these potential recruits are thoroughly and adequately assessed using the higher profile kids as benchmarks as well as an eye to the level of talent the competition both locally (Cal/UCSB/CalPoly/UCI) and nationally (Akron/ND/Wake/MD/Indy) are signing.
Sorry…I’m rambling and digressing…but Just my $.02 .
Strong finish
for softball. The first loss was a little frustrating to watch, especially after having bases loaded in the first and nothing to show for it. They bounced back nicely for the remaining games, even if it took 2 home runs in extra innings to do it :)
Mens and Womens tennis
Both advanced yesterday in the National indoors. The women took down Florida 4-3 and the men came back after losing the doubles point to beat Illinois 4-2
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