What’s Bruin: UCLA Men’s Basketball Picked to Finish Third in Pac-12

Men’s Basketball

A couple of days ago, the Pac-12 Preseason Media Poll was released and UCLA was picked to finish third in the conference.

This third place finish is the exact same placing from last year when they were also chosen to finish third. The Bruins made it to the Pac-12 Tournament semifinals before falling to eventual champions Arizona. This year, things could be different, but it doesn’t look that way. Last season, UCLA had one of the best teams in the country and they couldn’t win the conference title or a national title.

Women’s Volleyball

After falling to Stanford on Friday, UCLA bounced back with a sweep of UC Berkeley on Saturday.

Freshman Mac May continues a stellar debut season with a match-best 12 kills along with seven digs and three blocks while Sarah Sponcil had 27 assists and eight digs. Before the Golden Bears could even get on the board, the Bruins scored 11 points. At one point, Berkeley did lead late in the second set, but that did not last long as the Bruins retook the lead.

The win Saturday night was a must to keep the team’s hopes of winning the conference alive as UCLA heads on a four-match road trip starting against Utah this Friday.

Men’s Water Polo

UCLA defeated #7 Long Beach to record their 100th all-time win against the 49ers.

Freshman Nicolas Saveljic put the Bruins on the board after he won the opening sprint and fired a shot from the front court. That was not his last goal of the night. In fact, Saveljic scored a game-high three goals that night. His second came in the third quarter to give UCLA the lead. He completed his hat-trick in the fourth quarter to open the scoring.

While the 49ers were able to pull one back in the last in the last minute, UCLA held on to the 8-6 lead. UCLA plays this Saturday against UC Berkeley to open up MPSF play.

Men’s Soccer

UCLA increases their winning streak to three games after a win in overtime against San Diego State.

After a successful road trip to the Northwest Pacific, the Bruins returned home to host the Aztecs. Anderson Asiedu scored his first goal as a Bruin to give his team a 1-0 lead. Then the game went into overtime after the Aztecs managed a goal in the last seconds of the game.

Only five minutes into overtime and the game was all wrapped up for the Bruins and it was all thanks to the Iloski brothers. Brian Iloski started the play who passed to Milan who then saw Eric open at the top of the box and Eric was able to find the back of the net. The goal marks Eric’s first career goal as a Bruin.

Next stop for UCLA is at New Mexico for their last non-conference game this Wednesday night.