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Another week, another not-very-pretty win for Jim Mora's UCLA football team. But a win is a win and Myles Jack is probably the most popular Bruin in Westwood this week after he smashed the Mildcats in Tucson on both sides of the ball. He'll have his work cut out for him, and with one day less to prepare, as our Bruins will take on the Huskies at the Rose Bowl in a special Friday night all-black L.A. Midnight game, with the Bruins needing another win to keep on pace to return to Palo Alto for another shot at the Pac-12 title and a trip to the Rose Bowl on January 1. But, while we wait to see how our Bruins fare when we apply the black-out treatment, let's take a quick minute to take a look at the various bits and pieces of news from around the UCLA-iverse:
- Beginning with the #25-ranked women's hoops team, the Lady Bruins went to Lincoln to take on #12-ranked Nebraska to open up their season, and it was a much less pleasant trip than the football team enjoyed, as the Bruins fell 77-49. Thea Lemberger led UCLA in scoring (17 points, 3 rebounds, 4 assists), followed by Atonye Nyingifa (12 points, 7 rebounds, 3 steals), and Nirra Fields (11 points), but it was too little against a dominant Cornhusker squad. But the Bruins returned home and had their first game in Ol' Pauley Under Glass on Veterans Day, pulling out a close 82-78 win over Pepperdine. Fields made a strong case for player of the game with a double-double (20 points, 10 rebounds), with Nyingifa (24 points, 8 rebounds, 5 assists, 2 steals), and Lemberger (25 points, 3 assists) also help UCLA to their first win of the year. With the split results, the Bruins are now 1-1 on the season and will host North Carolina at Pauley this upcoming Sunday.
- For the unranked women's volleyball team, they had the same story: coming up with a split weekend of results. On Friday, UCLA managed to sweep the Oregon State Beavers in Westwood, coming away with a nice 3-0 (25-15, 25-19, 25-23) win. Led by Kelly Reeves' 12 kills and 15 digs, the Bruins took control early and never looked back, with Maddy Klineman (11 kills, 5 digs), Karsta Lowe (11 kills), and Megan Moenoa (37 assists, 5 digs) all getting into double figures. But on Sunday, the Lady Bruins struggled to put away the Oregon Ducks, which ultimately led to Oregon coming back to win 3-2 (25-13, 25-18, 25-27, 20-25, 9-15). Lowe led UCLA with 18 kills, while Reeves (12 kills, 16 digs) and Moenoa (47 assists, 12 digs) each picked up a double-double, with Mariana Aquino (10 kills), Jessyka Ngauamo (13 digs), Karly Drolson (23 digs), and Klineman (11 kills) all notched double figures in a losing effort. With the split weekend, the Lady Bruins now stand at 13-11 overall and will head up to Seattle tomorrow to take on Washington before heading to Pullman on Friday.
- Turning to the #2-ranked men's water polo team, the Bruins went down to face #8-ranked Long Beach State and took away a nice 9-5 win in the 49ers' home pool on Saturday. The Bruins came out of the gate strong, taking a 3-0 advantage after one quarter, never looking back after that, with both Reynolds (Paul and Lucas) each grabbing a brace to lead UCLA to the win. With the win, UCLA is now 24-2 overall and 4-1 in conference play and will next take on Pepperdine in Malibu in a big conference matchup on Saturday.
- Finally, turning to the #2-ranked women's soccer team, the Lady Bruins ended the regular season in the best style possible, smashing Southern Cal 4-1 in Westwood on Thursday. The Bruins fell behind early to the Women of Troy, with Southern Cal taking a 1-0 advantage in the 14th minute. But the Trojan lead would be short-lived, as Darian Jenkins grabbed her 11th of the year in the 29th minute, assisted by star-of-the-match Sam Mewis, who herself gave UCLA the lead in the 52nd minute. But not content with a one-goal advantage, Mewis set up both Rosie White's goal in the 63rd minute, followed by Taylor Smith's goal in the 66th minute. The Lady Bruins finish the regular season at 17-1-2 overall and 9-0-2 in Pac-12 play (your conference champs) and will be on their way to the NCAA tournamentbeginning on November 15.
- Speaking of the women's soccer NCAA tournament, the Lady Bruins got flat-out robbed by the selection committee (excellent work lobbying for our team there Chianti Dan, you lazy spineless goon). Despite being the #2-ranked team in the nation (behind only undefeated #1-ranked Virginia), the #2-ranked Lady Bruins could not even land one of the four coveted #1 seeds in the NCAA tournament, being relegated to a bullshit #2 seed in the same region as #4-ranked North Carolina (which got the #1 seed). Someone on the selection committee had a real hard-on for the ACC, giving the conference all four #1 seeds, despite #3-ranked Florida State, #4-ranked North Carolina, and #6-ranked Virginia Tech all ranking below our Bruins. So, instead our Bruins will have to run the road through North Carolina, beginning with a November 15 match against San Diego State, followed by the winner of the Ohio State-Kentucky game. You can check out the full bullshit NCAA bracket here.
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 switch back into full-blown football mode as our Bruins gear up for this Friday night's black-out L.A. Midnight game against the Washington Huskies at the Rose Bowl. Fire away in the comment thread with your thoughts, additions, opinions, etc. as we get ready for Friday.
GO BRUINS