Non-Revenue Roundup: Scates Goes Out Winning, Tennis Teams Sweep, Water Polo Upset in Berkeley

We're in the middle of the spring non-revenue season now, which means this past week was chalk-full of action for UCLA's non-revenue sports. Without wasting any time, let's get right to the action from the past week:

• Starting with the legendary Coach Al Scates and his #3-ranked men's volleyball team, they got their final home-stand under way on Friday against #4-ranked BYU. Sadly, the final home-stand for Coach Scates did not start well, with the Bruins falling to BYU in a tightly-contested five-set match, losing 3-2. The Bruins had a lot of players in double digits, but it wasn't enough to stop the Cougars. UCLA was led by Kyle Caldwell's near triple-double (10 kills, 44 assists, 8 digs) and got double-digit performances from Gonzalo Quiroga (13 kills, 1 assist, 6 digs), Weston Dunlap (11 kills, 2 assists, 4 digs), Thomas Amberg (11 kills), and Jeremy Casebeer (11 kills, 2 assists, 4 digs).
• The next day, in Coach Scates' final home game after 50 years of being at the helm in Westwood, the Bruins picked up their game for their legendary coach and sent him out with style, sweeping BYU in the Saturday rematch, 3-0. Gonzalo Quiroga led UCLA (11 kills, 2 assists, 2 digs), while Weston Dunlap (8 kills) and Kyle Caldwell (2 kills, 27 assists, 5 digs) were instrumental in UCLA's clean sweep on Saturday. With the split weekend, the Bruins improved to 21-6 overall and 15-5 in conference play, heading into their final regular season matches, a road trip to Northern California to take on Pacific and Stanford next weekend.
  
• Turning to golf, as mentioned earlier (HT gbruin), our very own Patrick Cantlay was playing in the Masters at Augusta this weekend; however, he wasn't the only Bruin in the field, as he was joined by former Bruin Kevin Chappell in the tournament. Chappell made the cut in his first Masters' appearance, but finished +6, good enough for a tie for 44th (and one stroke behind Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy). Cantlay, finished a stroke behind his Bruin counterpart, finishing +7, tied for 47th overall. Despite finishing in the 40s, Cantlay still finished with the best score of any amateur in the field, taking the low amateur crown home, which marks the best result for a Bruin amateur golfer all-time.

• As for the #1-ranked women's water polo team, this past weekend trip to Berkeley was one to forget, as the Bruins were upset 8-6 by the #5-ranked Cal Golden Bears. Despite a hat trick from Becca Dorst and nine saves from Caitlin Dement, the Bruins were unable to slow down Cal and their scoring machine, Breda Vosters (4 goals). With the surprising loss, the ladies pick up only their second loss of the season, leaving them at 16-2 overall and 5-1 in conference play.
• Fortunately for another of UCLA's top-ranked teams, this past week was better. The #1-ranked women's tennis team got their weekend started well by sweeping Arizona State at home, 4-0. The Bruins opened the match by sweeping through the doubles action, in part due to Arizona State's injury problems. With the opening point in hand, the Bruins picked up wins from Skylar Morton, Kaitlin Ray, and a victory by default (because ASU was short-handed on players).
• The Lady Bruins turned their attention to a full-strength Arizona Wildcats squad the next day, but were able to beat the Mildcats 5-2 to keep their undefeated season alive. The Bruins opened the match by sweeping through the doubles action to nab the doubles point. From there, the Bruins were able to take care of business on the singles' side, with Robin Anderson, McCall Jones, Pamela Montez, and Kaitlin Ray all getting the needed wins to take the match. With the victory, UCLA finds itself undefeated at 20-0 and on a path to accomplish something very special if they can keep winning out.
• On the men's side, the #5-ranked men's tennis team was in action this weekend, starting by taking on Arizona in Tucson. The Bruins had no problem handling the Mildcats in the desert, winning easily 6-1. Starting with the doubles action, the Bruins swept Arizona to take the doubles point. The men followed it up with a near-sweep of the singles action, with Clay Thompson, Nick Meister, Dennis Novikov, Adrien Puget, and Dennis Mkrtchian all picking up wins.
• Finally, on Easter Sunday, the men were back in action in Salt Lake City against Utah, and like their earlier weekend match, this one wasn't much trouble for the vastly-superior UCLA team, beating the Utes 6-1. The Bruins got things started with the doubles point, followed by another 5-win piece of action on the singles side, with Thompson, Meister, Marcos Giron, Puget, and Mkrtchian all picking up wins. The sole loss was freshman Dennis Novikov, who has otherwise had a strong start since his UCLA debut. With the pair of wins, the Bruins improve to 18-2 on the season and 4-0 in conference play.
  

Pretty good week for our non-revenue teams, with the exception of women's water polo, which suffered a rare hiccup on (what we hope) is the road to another NCAA championship for UCLA. Fire away with your thoughts, takes, and observations on another solid week for our non-revenue sports.

GO BRUINS