It's Monday, which for most of us, means we're back at work (except you lucky few who get Lincoln's birthday off). Fortunately, by the time you read this, it'll be at least the late afternoon (here on the west coast) and you'll either be in the home stretch or home. So, with that, let's take a look at how UCLA's non-revenue sports fared this past week:

• Let's start with Coach Al Scates and his #1-ranked men's volleyball team. The men only had one match in the last week since our prior non-revenue roundup, but they made it a good one, dropping UC Santa Barbara on the road, 3-1. The Bruins got double-digit performances from Jeremy Casebeer (15 kills, 5 digs), Weston Dunlap (13 kills), Kyle Caldwell (43 assists, 3 digs), and Evan Mottram (10 assists, 15 digs). The Bruins got solid games from Thomas Amberg (8 kills) and Gonzalo Quiroga's near double-double (8 kills, 8 digs). With the road win over the Gauchos, the Bruins extend their winning streak to 10 games and now stand at 12-1 overall and 7-0 in conference play.
• With spring soon upon us, Coach Kelly Inouye-Perez and the #13-ranked women's softball team returned to action, starting with their opening match of the Stacy Winsberg Memorial Tournament at Easton Stadium against #18-ranked Kentucky on Thursday. The Bruins got their season started right, dropping Kentucky 7-1. Sophomore Jessica Hall took the hill for UCLA, going the full 7 innings, allowing just 3 hits and 1 run, while striking out 7. On the offensive side, UCLA was led by Ally Carda's 1-4, 2 RBI performance and Samantha Camuso's 2-2, 2 RBI game.
• The Lady Bruins went right back into action the following day, taking on the Wildcats again, this time blowing Kentucky out, 12-0, on the strength of home runs from Samantha Camuso, Katie Schroeder, and Stephany LaRosa. Needing just five innings before the slaughter rule ended the game, UCLA got great pitching performances from Ally Carda (3.0 innings pitched, 0 hits allowed, 0 runs allowed, 2 walks given, 5 strikeouts), who picked up the win, and Destiny Rodino (2.0 IP, 1 hit, 0 runs, 2 walks, 3 strikeouts) to combine to one-hit the Wildcats.
• Coach Inouye-Perez's squad went right back into action the next day, starting off their double-header day against the Pacific Tigers. Once again, the Bruins had no problem dispatching their opponents, blowing out the Tigers 10-2, once again bringing the game to an early end by way of the mercy rule in the sixth inning. Three Bruins went deep, with Samantha Camuso adding her second homer in as many days, joined by Andrea Harrison and Dani Yudin. Jessica Hall pitched a strong opening three innings, striking out 4, all while not allowing a single hit and issuing just one walk; Destiny Rodino picked up the back three innings, allowing 2 runs on 2 hits, but preserving the UCLA big win to notch her first win of the season.
• Following their victory over Pacific, the Bruins took on the Kentucky Wildcats for the third time in three days, and once again the Wildcats could not figure out the Bruins, falling 6-2. Ally Carda (4.0 IP, 2 H, 2 R, 4 BB, 2 K) pitched well enough to pick up the victory, while Jessica Hall (3.0 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 2 K) shut the door on Kentucky to pick up her first save on the year. On the offensive side, the Bruins were led by Dani Yudin's 2-3, 2 RBI day. With the big weekend victories, the Bruins find themselves standing tall at 4-0.

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It's Monday, which sadly means we're all back at work following Super Bowl Sunday. You would think we'd get today off, since well, the Super Bowl is practically a national holiday here in the good ol' United States, but alas, we don't. So, if you're trying to get through the doldrums of a Monday, with no football in sight until spring camp, hopefully, our non-revenue sports will keep you entertained until the QB battle begins this spring. With that, let's take a look at how UCLA's non-revenue sports fared this past week:

• Starting with the return of golf, the #4-ranked men's golf team got back in action, playing in the Amer Ani Invitational in Hawaii. Despite a pair of strong days that left them in sole possession of second place after the second round, the men couldn't close, finishing fifth in the tournament, behind tournament champ Texas, U$C, Stanford, and Georgia Tech.
• Likewise, on the female side, the #1-ranked women's golf team is back in action after the winter layoff, playing in the Arizona Wildcat Invitational in, of course, Tucson. After the first round of the tournament yesterday, the ladies find themselves in second place, four shots behind leaders Arizona. The women will be back in action in the second round today, with the third and final round on Tuesday.
• Turning to the first of a pair of weekend road sweeps for UCLA, the #9-ranked men's tennis team headed to the Bay Area, taking on #13-ranked Cal on Friday, earning a hard-fought come-from-behind 4-3 win over the Golden Bears. Despite being swept in the doubles, the men came on strong in singles, with Nick Meister, Clay Thompson, Marcos Giron, and Dennis Mkrtchian picking up victories.
• The men followed up Friday's big win by dominating #6-ranked Stanford on Saturday in Palo Alto, 6-1. The men, despite losing the doubles point, had a clean sweep on the singles side, with Nick Meister, Clay Thompson, Marcos Giron, Maxime Tabatruong, Adrien Puget, and Dennis Mkrtchian all picking up wins over their Cardinal opponent. With the weekend sweep of the Bay Area schools, the men improve to 6-0 on the season.

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It's Monday and with football's national letter of intent signing day just on the horizon (this upcoming Wednesday), it feels like most of our time is dedicated to following the rampant recruiting speculation and updates. Don't worry folks, we'll get back to all of that shortly. For now, let's take a few minutes to take a look at how our non-revenue Bruins fared this past week.

• Starting with Coach Al Scates' #3-ranked squad (when you hang 19 title banners in Westwood in a 50 year career, you earn the right to always be the lead story), the men's volleyball team continues to be hot, picking up a pair of 3-0 wins this week. On Wednesday, the men got it started against #9-ranked Cal State Northridge, dropping the Matadors 3-0 in a one hour display of pure dominance (set scores were 25-18, 25-15, and 25-12). The Bruins were led by Jeremy Casebeer's 13 kills, with Weston Dunlap and Gonzalo Quiroga each chipping in with 7 kills. Kyle Caldwell had another solid performance, notching 32 assists and 8 digs. The Bruins had no problem with the Matadors, putting up 13.5 blocks, compared to CSUN's zero (yes, zero) blocks.
• The men followed up Wednesday's beat-down of CSUN by dropping #15-ranked UC Santa Barbara at the Wooden Center by the score of 3-0. With the win, the Bruins picked up their sixth consecutive shutout. In the victory, the Bruins got big games from Jeremy Casebeer (again, although this time with only 10 kills), Weston Dunlap (8 kills), Kyle Caldwell (7 kills, 28 assists, 8 digs), and Gonzalo Quiroga (7 kills, 4 digs). From the dominating form the Bruins are showing, it's clear that Al Scates and his squad have one goal in mind: sending the legendary coach out on top with, what we hope, will be UCLA's 109th national title. On the year, the men now stand at 9-1 overall and a perfect 4-0 in conference play.
  
• Turning to the #1-ranked women's gymnastics squad, the Bruins finally faltered, coming up short against #22-ranked Washington in Seattle on Friday. The ladies fell 194.600 to 195.350, in what will get marked down as a absolutely massive upset victory for the Lady Huskies. Despite good results on the vault (Bruins grabbing 4 out of the top 6 spots, with Vanessa Zamarripa leading with 9.925), the ladies couldn't put together the kind of dominating performance we've seen from them before, having an unusually poor night on the uneven bars, and more-or-less splitting the balance beam and floor exercise with the Huskies. With the uncharacteristic poor loss, the ladies now stand at 3-1 on the year.

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It's Monday and with the Niners eliminated (thanks to a punt returner that even made Taylor Embree look not-so-bad), all we have left on the football front is the normal rampant recruiting speculation and tracking Bruins in the NFL (well, the two that are still alive and going to the Super Bowl, New England's Bret Lockett and Matt Slater). But, since we're UCLA and we also happen to be pretty good at every other sport we partake in, we do have a lot of other action to take note of.

With that, let's recap how our non-revenue sports fared this past week:

• Starting with Coach Al Scates' #3-ranked men's volleyball squad got conference play started this weekend, starting with the Stanford Cardinal on Friday. The Bruins didn't have too much trouble, sweeping the men from Palo Alto 3-0 to get their conference season started off strong. The Bruins were led by Gonzalo Quiroga's 16 kills, with big contributions from Kyle Caldwell (31 assists) and Jeremy Casebeer (11 digs).
• Coach Scates' men kept up the good work, sweeping Pacific on Saturday, 3-0. Against the Tigers, the Bruins had no trouble and were led by Weston Dunlap (12 kills) and Thomas Amberg (10 kills). Kyle Caldwell once against had a solid night, pitching in with 36 assists, while Jeremy Casebeer also came up big (9 kills, 5 digs), with Evan Mottram picking up 8 digs. With the pair of victories, the #3-ranked men's volleyball team improves to 7-1 overall and 2-0 in MPSF conference play.
• And before we move on away from men's volleyball, let's take a moment to talk about a true coaching legend: Coach Al Scates. The Los Angeles Times profiled the man who has been at the helm in Westwood for 50 (yes, 50) years, who will finally ride off into the sunset after this season. The 19-time national title winning coach is on his quest for his 20th national title in Westwood and UCLA's 109th NCAA championship. Let's keep our fingers crossed, because there would be no better way to send a true legend off than with a title banner returning to Westwood.
  

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It's Monday and we're finally in the doldrums known as the college football off-season. So, while we get to partake in rampant recruiting speculation, coaching carousel intrigue, and tracking Bruins in the NFL (well, the three that are still alive in the playoffs, such as Brendon Ayanbadejo, Bret Lockett, and Matt Slater), we do have a full slate of non-revenue UCLA sports, many of which we're looking strong to win UCLA it's 109th national title.

With that, let's recap how our non-revenue sports fared this past week:

• Starting with Al Scates' final UCLA squad, the #3-ranked men's volleyball team kept their season going strong, picking up three victories in Hawaii in the Outrigger Hotels Invitational tournament and bringing home the hardware as tournament champs. The men got their run to the tournament title started against Lewis University (it's a small Catholic school near Joliet, Illinois), dropping the disgraced 2003 national champs in four sets, 3-1. The Bruins were led by Jeremy Casebeer's career-high 16 kills (plus 5 digs), getting big contributions from Weston Dunlap (12 kills, 3 digs), Kyle Caldwell (45 assists, 5 digs), Gonzalo Quiroga (11 kills, 4 digs), and Evan Mottram (14 digs).
• In the second match, the Bruins took on the Pride of Springfield College (Massachusetts), the school best known as where Naismith invented basketball, and had no problem dispatching Springfield, beating the Pride in a clean sweep, 3-0. In the second match, the Bruins were led by Thomas Amberg's 13 kills (plus team-high 4 digs) and Kyle Caldwell's 34 assists. Consistent point-man Weston Dunlap chipped in 9 kills in a UCLA victory that took them to the tournament title match.
• In the third and final match of the tournament, the Bruins squared off against #13 Hawaii, in what was tantamount to a home match for the Warriors. But despite three close sets, the Bruins took the tournament title with a clean sweep of the Warriors, 3-0. In the title match, once again the Bruins got big games from Jeremy Casebeer (13 kills, 3 digs), Gonzalo Quiroga (11 kills, 7 digs), and Kyle Caldwell (34 assists, 5 digs). With the three wins, the Bruins return to the mainland with a 5-1 overall record.

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It's Monday morning (well noon for those of you on the East Coast) and we're creeping closer to the finale of this year's college football season. While it means another long eight months until September 1 and the kick-off of the 2012 season, it does mean it's the time of the year where we transition into a new season for many of our non-revenue sports.

So before we get to the SEC love-fest tonight, let's take a quick few minutes to recap how our non-revenue sports fared this past week, including a few that got their seasons underway:

• Starting with our women's basketball team, the ladies went down to the desert for a weekend road trip against the Arizona schools, beginning with the Arizona Lady Mildcats Wildcats on Thursday night. Unfortunately, Coach Cori Close's team came up short, falling to Arizona 74-66. The Bruins were led by Markel Walker's double-double (12 points, 12 rebounds), got good games from Thea Lemberger (17 points, 5 assists, 1 steal), Rebekah Gardner (12 points, 8 rebounds), and a just-short-of-a-double-double performance by Corinne Costa (8 points, 7 rebounds), but it was all for naught as the Wildcats ran out of the buildings with the win.
• The ladies followed up Thursday's disappointing loss by following in their male counterpart's shoes, blowing out the Arizona State Sun Devils in Tempe, 64-48. Markel Walker picked up another double-double (15 points, 13 rebounds), while Thea Lemberger lit up the scoreboard with 22 points. Rebekah Gardner had an outstanding night, contributing 16 points and 8 rebounds in the UCLA winning effort. With the weekend split, the ladies now stand at 7-8 for the season and 2-2 in Pac-12 play. They'll next be in action against hated U$C on Saturday, Jan. 14.

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It's Monday morning, and like most of America, you're probably getting ready for a day full of college football bowl action: you know bowl games that feature winning teams, good coaching, and disciplined players. In other words, not UCLA. But before we get to that (we'll have a college football open thread up later this morning), there are a few non-revenue notes to take a look at.

And before I get to that, I want to briefly mention something that I touched on in yesterday's special edition of Bruin Bites: the fact that our clueless, tone-deaf, delusional athletic director claimed our program is "pretty darn good" despite the fact, as we've pointed out before, that even our non-revenue programs have been on a downward trajectory.

With that, let's take a look at how our non-revenue sports fared this past week:

• Starting with women's basketball, Cori Close and the women's basketball team took on the Bay Area schools at Wooden Center this past weekend, starting with Cal on Thursday evening. The ladies got the weekend started right, taking down the Lady Golden Bears 60-55. The Bruins were led by Thea Lemberger, who had a career night, scoring 26 points along with 3 rebounds and 4 assists. Markel Walker also had a big night for the Lady Bruins, contributing 18 points, 8 rebounds, and 4 assists. Lastly, sophomore Corinne Costa set the tone on the defensive end, tying a school record with 7 blocks (with the team as a whole setting a new team record for blocks in a single game at 13).
• Despite the win over Cal, Close's team followed it up with a sub-par effort against the #4-ranked Stanford Cardinal, getting throttled at home by the Cardinal, 77-50. Rebekah Gardner (17 points, 6 rebounds, 2 assists) and Markel Walker (11 points, 7 rebounds) were the big contributors for the Lady Bruins, but it was too little against the powerful Cardinal. With the split weekend, the women's hoops team now stands at 6-7 for the season, with a 1-1 conference record.

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With most of our fall sports already wrapped up (with men's soccer and men's water polo falling just short of a national title, women's soccer taking a very premature exit in post-season play) and UCLA's 108th national title in the books thanks to Coach Michael Sealy and the women's volleyball team, it's been a quiet week for the non-revenue sports. The only team in action was our women's basketball team, and suffice to say it wasn't a good week for Coach Cori Close's squad.

So with that in mind, we'll keep it short and get you right to your non-revenue roundup for this past holiday week:

• Before turning to women's basketball, our men's soccer team will officially lose top goal-scorer Chandler Hoffman to MLS, as he signed his Generation Adidas contract a few days before Christmas. Hoffman continues a decade of UCLA players going to MLS while retaining college eligibility as part of MLS's Generation Adidas (formerly known as Project 40 when sponsored by Nike) project, which includes current U.S. men's national team captain and former Bruin great Carlos Bocanegra. For now, UCLA is waiting to see if super sophomore midfielder Kelyn Rowe will join Hoffman and sign a Generation Adidas contract and make the jump to MLS. Either way, we wish the best for both of them.
• Speaking of Chandler Hoffman, MLS caught up with him and did a Q&A with the former Bruin scoring machine. You can catch the full Q&A on the official MLS website here.

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