Non-Revenue Roundup: Gymnastics Grabs Pac-12 Crown, Women's Tennis Sweeps in the Mountains

This will be a pretty short non-revenue roundup, as most of our non-revenue sports were not in action this past week due to a combination of finals and spring break. In fact, only two squads were in action this past week, our women's gymnastics squad and the women's tennis team. Men's tennis will make its return to action later this afternoon (1:30 p.m. PST) against LMU at the L.A. Tennis Center (so if you're on campus and want to catch a bit of the action, drop by).

The downside to this lack of non-revenue sports has been that we've been forced to watch the blue bloods of college hoops make it deep in March Madness, all while Ben Howland and Chianti Dan's dumpster fire program continue to rot away. It's somewhat ironic that the coach UCLA could have had, if Dalis didn't screw the pooch, is taking a program with a fraction of the prestige, recruiting potential, legacy, and other natural advantages of UCLA to the Final Four. But, let's set that aside for a second, to take a look at how our non-revenue programs fared this past week:

• The biggest news was that our women's gymnastics team was in action this past Saturday in Salt Lake City in the inaugural Pac-12 championship. The ladies did not disappoint, grabbing the crown by edging out second-place (and host) Utah, 197.425 to 197.375. The Bruins kept it close, trailing for the majority of the championship round, before using a late surge on the balance beam to grab the lead and fend off Utah. Vanessa Zamarripa nearly took the top individual all-around spot, finishing second to Utah's Corrie Lothrop, 39.575 to Lothrop's 39.625. UCLA was consistent throughout, with two Bruins tied for the top vault score (Zamarripa and Olivia Courtney with 9.950) and two more tied for fourth (Tauny Frattone and Elyse Hopfner-Hibbs' 9.900), middle of the pack on the uneven bars (Aisha Gerber was UCLA's top finisher, tied for ninth at 9.875), three Bruins with top-five scores on the balance beam (Hopfner-Hibbs finished first at 9.975, Zamarripa in second with 9.950, and Gerber tied for fifth with 9.900). With the Pac-12 title, the Bruins now turn their attention to NCAA action, with the Regionals kicking off on April 7 in Arkansas.

• Turning to the #1-ranked women's tennis team, the ladies hit the road for a pair of matches against our new Pac-12 brethren, starting with Colorado on Friday. The Bruins first Pac-12 trip to Colorado didn't disappoint, with the ladies pulling out a 5-2 win in Boulder to keep their perfect season alive. The Bruins started off by sweeping the doubles action to grab the first point. The ladies started strong in singles play, running off four dominating victories in a row (Robin Anderson, Pamela Montez, Chanelle Van Nguyen, and Kaitlin Ray) to build an insurmountable 5-0 advantage, before Colorado notched their two points (with victories over McCall Jones and Carling Seguso).
• Sunday proved to be just as friendly for the Bruins on the road, as the ladies smashed Utah in Salt Lake City, 6-1. Once again, the Bruins swept through doubles action to earn the doubles point, before turning in a strong singles performance (victories by Robin Anderson, McCall Jones, Carling Seguso, Chanelle Van Nguyen, and Kaitlin Ray) to grab the victory and run their perfect record to 16-0 on the season and 3-0 in Pac-12 play. The undefeated Bruins will return to Westwood to face the Washington schools this week.

And like I said, this is a short non-revenue roundup, but a good one with our gymnastics team picking up another conference title, while our women's tennis squad continue their dominating, undefeated season with style

Fire away with your thoughts, comments, additions, or analysis in the thread.

GO BRUINS