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If you're insane, you're going to a mall today. If you're not insane, you're hanging out, enjoying the holiday. If you're in Los Angeles, it's the perfect time to visit campus, with abundant parking, an empty Bruin Walk free of those flyer folks, and not a student to be found (not even our football team). So, with a quiet week in Westwood, there's not a lot of non-revenue game action, but a handful of interesting bits from around the UCLA-iverse:
- Starting with our national championship winning women's soccer team, junior defender Abby Dahlkemper was named a the 2014 Honda Sports Award winner for soccer. One of the top defenders in the country, Dahlkemper was the leader of a Bruin defense that led the nation in goals allowed and helped shut down high-powered offensive programs throughout the NCAA tournament, including the Icelandic striking duo at Florida State in the final. Congrats to Abby!
- Sticking with Westwood's most recent champions, goalkeeper Katelyn Rowland and midfielder Lauren Kaskie were both named to the United States' U-20 roster for the upcoming CONCACAF qualifiers for the 2014 U-20 World Cup in Canada. Congrats to both Lady Bruins.
- Turning to the their male counterparts, midfielder Leo Stolz was named to Top Drawer's First-Team XI for the past season, while freshman defender Michael Amick was named to the freshman First Team XI based on his outstanding first-year campaign for the Bruins.
- Finally, flipping over to women's hoops, the Lady Bruins were in Minneapolis this past weekend for the Subway Classic, and they got their tournament started off well, coming from behind to beat host-Minnesota 58-55 on Friday night. Down by 8 with only 5:27 left, the Bruins came up with shut-down defense and a 11-0 run to steal one in the Great Frozen North, with Nirra Fields (19 points, 5 rebounds, 4 steals), Thea Lemberger (17 points, 2 rebounds), and Antonye Nyingifa (9 points, 8 rebounds) leading UCLA. Their second game, however, would not go as well, with Auburn taking the early lead and never surrendering it, dropping our Bruins 66-60. Nyingifa led UCLA in scoring (19 points, 6 rebounds), with Lemberger (18 points, 4 rebounds), and Fields (15 points, 9 rebounds, 8 steals) contributing double-digit efforts, but it wasn't enough for UCLA to pull out a second win. With the split weekend, the Lady Bruins are now 5-6 overall and will return to action this next weekend on Dec. 28 against Cal Poly at Pauley.
Alright folks, those are your bits and pieces of news from around the UCLA-iverse as we enjoy (or lament) the last final day of shopping insanity. Fire away in the comment thread.
GO BRUINS