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As promised yesterday, this afternoon we're going to briefly shift away our focus from our (hopefully) resurgent football program (in spite of Chianti Dan's floundering . . . where is the football facility there Doughnut Boy?!) and look at how our other programs fared during the past week. Like the football team during the third quarter in Nebraska, our various non-revenue teams were red-hot this week, with no UCLA team losing. So, with that said, let's turn to our very promising bits and pieces of news from around the non-revenue sports UCLA-iverse:
- Beginning with our #11-ranked women's volleyball team, the Lady Bruins spent the past weekend in Colorado, despite the terrible flooding and tragedy (for a perspective on that, see gbruin's moving Morning After post) and they picked themselves up in a big way following their loss to #9-ranked Hawaii in Honolulu last Saturday, by sweeping host Denver, 3-0 (25-20, 25-22, 25-18) on Thursday. Led by Karsta Lowe's 12 kills, Jordan Robbins 25 assists, and Monica Stauber's 15 assists, the Lady Bruins got their Rocky Mountain trip started strong. On Friday, the ladies were taken to the limit by Cal State Northridge, escaping with a five-set 3-2 victory (27-25, 25-23, 20-25, 22-25, 15-12), with three Bruins putting up double-digit kills (Lowe with 19, Kelly Reeves with 13, Mariana Aquino with 11). Finally, on Saturday, the Lady Bruins made it a perfect sweep in Denver, beating #24-ranked Creighton, 3-1 (25-23, 22-25, 25-23, 25-19) with Maddy Klineman leading with 19 kills, supported by Lowe's 13 kills and Reeves' 15 kills. With the three wins, the Lady Bruins now stand at 8-1 on the year and will head to Long Beach State tomorrow.
- Flipping over to the #5-ranked women's soccer team, these Lady Bruins kept coming on strong, dropping San Diego State on Friday, 2-0. The Bruins left it late in both halves, with Kodi Lavrusky scoring an absolute stunner from about 25 yards out (tucking it into the top right corner over the SDSU 'keeper) in the 45th minute, with Abby Dahlkemper scoring the Bruins' second in the 85th minute from a deflected corner kick off the woodwork to ensure the Bruins would walk away winners. With the win, the Lady Bruins now stand at 6-1, with their next match in Malibu against Pepperdine on Friday.
- Turning to their male counterparts, the #14-ranked men's soccer team played a tight game against unranked UC Santa Barbara, but pulled out the narrow win, 1-0. The Bruins needed a piece of individual brilliance from midfielder Leo Stolz in 49th minute, with the junior picking the ball up in the UCLA half and proceeding to dribble through UCSB defenders the length of the field before burying it in the bottom corner to give UCLA the only goal needed to grab victory. On Sunday, the Bruins took on a lackluster USD side, and in keeping with Coach Jorge Salcedo's inability to get UCLA over-the-proverbial-hump, UCLA put a pretty sad defensive effort, needing a Torero own goal in OT at Drake Stadium to secure the 3-2 win. Leo Stolz showed why he wears the #10 kit, leveling for UCLA in the 38th minute on a beautifully chipped through ball from freshman Felix Vobejda, before providing the assist in the 43rd minute for Brian Iloski's goal. However, with USD leveling things up at 2-2 in the 67th minute, UCLA needed an OT own goal in the 97th minute to secure the win. With the pair of wins, the Bruins move to 3-1-1 on the year, with their next match at UC Irvine on Thursday.
- Finally, turning to the #2-ranked men's water polo team, the Bruins went to Redlands this weekend for the Inland Empire Classic. Beginning on Saturday, the Bruins slaughtered #18-ranked Redlands, 19-2, with Paul Reynolds, Anthony Daboub, and Alec Zwaneveld each scoring hat tricks, while Lovre Milos, Chancellor Ramirez, Chris Wendt, and Gordon Marshall all netted a pair of goals each. In their second game of the day, the Bruins wasted no time putting the beat down on the combined squad for Claremont-Mudd-Scripps, dropping them 20-3. This time, Ryder Roberts and Daniel Lenhart scored the UCLA hat tricks, with Paul Reynolds, Lucas Reynolds, and Wendt scoring braces to lead UCLA to an easy win. In their third and final game of the day, UCLA took on Whittier and, after jumping out to a 6-0 lead in the first quarter, never looked back, pounding the Whittier men, 27-2. In a game that stood at 15-0 at half and 22-0 after three quarters, UCLA had a lot of opportunity to give quality playing time to reserves, with 13 Bruins getting on the score sheet and 3 different goalkeepers registering saves. Danny McClintick led UCLA with 4 goals, while both Reynolds', Aimone Barabino, and Cristiano Miracrchi all grabbed hat tricks. With the three easy wins, UCLA remains undefeated at 7-0 and will head up to Berkeley this weekend for the NorCal Invitational, beginning with Concordia University in the first match.
Alright folks, those are your non-revenue sports related bits and pieces of news from around the UCLA-iverse for this Tuesday afternoon. Stay tuned as we begin to switch back into football mode as our Bruins prepare to take on a flailing New Mexico State program at the Rose Bowl in what looks like, on paper, an easy win, but in reality, could be the perfect trap game in the making. Fire away in the comment thread with your thoughts, additions, opinions, etc. as we count down to Saturday for the return of our Bruins to the Rose Bowl.
GO BRUINS