What’s Bruin: Jaylen Hands Makes Quite a Debut in a UCLA Jersey, Plus More UCLA News

While the UCLA Football had a bye this week, it doesn’t mean that it was a quiet weekend for all UCLA teams. Let’s take a quick look....

UCLA Men’s Basketball

On Saturday, UCLA took over Venice Beach. While the men’s and women’s basketball team, along with the gymnastics team, participated in the day-long event, it was a particular freshman by the name of Jaylen Hands who stole the show.

The day started off with some yoga, followed by 3-on-3 basketball tournament, and the day ended with a showcase by both the men’s and women’s basketball team. During the showcase, fellow freshman Jaylen Hands stole the limelight during the dunk show.

Hands faced teammate Kris Wilkes in the final round and pulled out all the stops with the help of coach Steve Alford. Alford positioned himself under the basket and Hands jumped over Alford and with one hand slammed dunked the ball into the basket. Not a bad way at all to introduce oneself to the world.

The men’s team begin their season in Shanghai, China against Georgia Tech on November 10 while the women’s team starts their season the same day at the Pauley Pavilion against San Jose State.

UCLA Women’s Soccer

The women’s soccer team played to their first draw in conference play against Arizona Sunday afternoon.

Within thirty minutes of the game, UCLA was leading 2-0. Hallie Mace opened the scoring in the 20th minute to mark her 12th goal of the season which also makes her the all-time leading goal scorer in the Pac-12 conference. Minutes later Anika Rodriguez doubled the lead after the Bruins were awarded a penalty kick.

While they lead with two goals, it did not remain that way as Arizona came back to equal the score. The Wildcats capitalized on two Bruin mistakes. The first one happened after a back pass to Teagan Micah which was intercepted by a Wildcat. The next one came after Arizona forced a turnover and made sure UCLA paid the price.

UCLA earned their second tie of the season and host Utah on Thursday at home.

UCLA Men’s Water Polo

It was thanks to some key defensive stops that the Bruins were able to hang onto their 8-7 lead against #9 Pepperdine over the weekend. After their first loss of the season to UC Irvine, UCLA was out for blood.

Senior Max Irving started the scoring for the Bruins when he scored within minutes and freshman Chasen Travisano doubled the lead with under five minutes to go. Pepperdine cut the score in half with a goal two minutes later. But the Bruins did not stay idle and notched two more goals for a 4-1 lead.

The rest of the game was mainly defense, especially in the last quarter. The Bruins did not score a single goal in the last quarter while the Waves scored two. It all came down to defense and its further evidence as to how crucial defense is.

After a difficult but sweet victory, UCLA will face Cal Baptist in a non-conference game this Friday.

UCLA Women’s Volleyball

UCLA won their third straight match on Friday when they defeated Arizona State, 3-1.

The Bruins had four players who helped lead the way. Sophomore Madeleine Gates led the bunch with 15 kills. Freshman Mac May and Jenny Mosser both registered 13 kills. Senior Reily Buechler recorded her own 12. Senior Sarah Sponcil did a lot of nitty-gritty work when she tallied 48 assists, eight digs, and four kills.

While the Bruins were down by one point in the first quarter, that was the only time they lost the lead the rest of the game. They were down 2-3, but Sponcil and Buechler helped give the team a 6-3 lead. The Bruins did not relinquish their lead the rest of the way.

UCLA Men’s Soccer

The UCLA Men’s Soccer team upset #22 Washington as they scored in overtime to defeat the Huskies, 1-0, while earning a much-needed win over a ranked opponent.

Washington came into the game on a six-game winning streak. While the Husky defense was hard to break down, their offense kept on knocking on the Bruins’ door for a goal. UCLA goalkeeper Kevin Silva recorded six saves last night for another shutout.

The golden goal came in just the fourth minute of the first overtime period. The Bruins were awarded a corner kick and took advantage of it. Milan Iloski took the corner and served a ball into the box and Matthew Powell headed it past the Washington keeper. It was Powell’s first goal of the season.

UCLA faces San Diego State at home next Sunday evening.

And that’s What’s Bruin this Monday morning.