What’s Bruin: It was a Very Good Weekend for UCLA Bruins (Except Football)

Let’s take a quick spin around the world of UCLA Athletics to find out what’s Bruin. First up is women’s soccer.

UCLA Women’s Soccer

#1 UCLA opened up Pac-12 play with a bang after defeating Colorado 2-0.

A goal from Ashley Sanchez and Sunny Dunphy secured the win for UCLA. Last season when the Bruins visited the Rocky Mountains, they lost 1-0. That road trip, in general, was rough for them. This time around, UCLA was not going to let the past repeat itself. While the first half was a bit rough, the Bruins came back in the second half to take the win and remain unbeaten, bringing their record to 8-0-1.

Pac-12 play continues this Thursday as UCLA hosts the Oregon school with Oregon up first at Drake Stadium. This Thursday is actually a double dose of soccer as the men’s team play right after the conclusion of the game.

UCLA Men’s Water Polo

After winning the title in the Mountain Pacific Invitational last year, #4 UCLA looked to defend their title.

After defeating #5 Pacific and #1 UC Berkeley, it then came down to the title game against #2 Southern Cal. In the first period, UCLA fell behind 4-2. However, the Bruins rallied behind 6 goals from Max Irving, 4 from Alex Roelse, 2 from Nicolas Saveljic and 1 from Chasen Travisano to win the Mountain Pacific Invitational for the second straight year by a score of 13-11 to secure the title. With the win, the Bruins improve to a 12-0 record in the season and complete a weekend with victories over #1, #2, and #5. Expect UCLA to be the new #1 team in the country this week.

UCLA Women’s Volleyball

#11 UCLA defeated #8 Oregon in 4 sets 19-25, 25-18, 25-19, 25-21 at the John Wooden Center on Friday night. Madeline Gates led the Bruins with 17 kills while Sarah Sponcil recorded a double-double with 47 assists and 19 digs. Reily Buechler also had a double-double with 12 kills and 10 digs while Mac May had 12 kills and Jenny Mosser added 11 kills.

UCLA takes on Washington Friday night at 7 pm PT at Pauley Pavilion.

UCLA Men’s Soccer

UCLA ended their non-conference play with a 2-1 win against CSU Northridge.

Northridge opened the scoring when they scored in the 17th minute. Five minutes later, Santiago Herrera tied it up when he shot the ball past the keeper with a low ball. Minutes into the second half, the Bruins took the lead. Leading goal scorer Brian Iloski was fouled inside the penalty box and stepped up to take the kick. Iloski buried the ball in the back of the net marking his fifth goal of the season, three of which have come from penalty kicks.

With this win, the Bruins close out non-conference play with a win as they prepare to take on UC Berkeley at home in the Pac-12 opener this Thursday at 8 pm PT.

Cross Country

The day could not have gone better for the Cross Country team. The men’s team placed third while the women’s team placed tenth in the Griak Invite in Minnesota.

In the men’s 8k race, the Bruins had two runners who finished in the top three. Sophomore Garrett Reynolds finished second overall with a time of 25:09.0. and junior transfer Robert Brandt impressed in his debut with a third-place finish with a time of 25:04.4.

The women participated in the Jack Johnsons Women’s Gold Race. There were 18 teams in total who lined up for the race. Freshman Erika Adler led the Bruins with a 23rd place finish with a time of 22:19.8. Next came Cassandra Durgy in 37th place with 22:46.1. While their placement in the 6k course wasn’t the most ideal, assistant coach Jennifer DeRego called their performance “gutsy” and knows “they’ll be ready when it counts in the end of the season.”


And that’s What’s Bruin this Monday.