What’s Bruin: UCLA Tennis in Tournament Action & Scholar-Athletes Honored

It’s been kind of a light week since most sports are starting to wind down, but let’s catch up on What’s Bruin.

UCLA Tennis

UCLA went 4-0 on Tuesday in the women’s NCAA Championships to put two representatives each in the singles and doubles rounds of 16. Jada Hart won in straight sets against her Pac-12 opponent and Elysia Bolton won in three sets. Gabby Andrews and Ayan Broomfield won a tight match in their doubles play, and when Hart and Bolton teamed up, they beat a higher ranked team from the SEC.

On Wednesday afternoon, Hart took on No. 25 Katarina Stresnakova of Oklahoma State and ended up falling in two sets. Bolton faced No. 46 Cameron Morra of North Carolina, and prevailed in three. Bolton and Hart also teamed up and defeated 37th ranked Kate Fahey and Brienne Minor of Michigan in doubles play.

In the men’s tournament, the second-seeded pair of Maxime Cressy and Keegan Smith advanced to the Round of 16 on Tuesday, defeating Old Dominion’s combination of Aziz Kijametovic and Francois Musitelli. Yesterday, they faced 29th-ranked Marko Ilic and Hendrik Inno of Belmont, and won in two sets, 6-2 and 6-3. That advanced them to the quarterfinals today where they defeated Joel Gamerov and August Holmgren to advance to the Doubles Semifinals tomorrow.

UCLA Scholar-Athletes

On Monday, UCLA honored it’s top scholar athletes at the 13th Annual UCLA Scholar-Athlete Banquet. Men’s soccer player Tobias Henneke and rower Lanea Tuiasosopo received top honors as the Scholar-Athletes of the Year, which are awarded to the male and female graduating senior with the highest cumulative GPA.

UCLA Softball

Bubba Nickles has been selected as the UCLA/Muscle Milk Student-Athlete of the Week for May 13-19. She recorded not one, but two five-RBI games during the Los Angeles Regional, helping her team to advance to the Super Regionals this weekend. Nickles hit a pair of home runs for the third time in her career on Saturday versus Missouri, including a grand slam. This is the first time she has been selected for this honor.

Bruins In the Pros

In case you missed it, Kevon Looney went off for 12 points and 14 rebounds in the Golden State Warrior’s victory sweep over the Portland Trail Blazers, helping his team make it to the NBA Finals for the fifth consecutive year.

In addition, Norman Powell is playing in the Eastern Semifinals for the Toronto Raptors, so if Toronto defeats the Milwaukee Bucks, it is entirely possible we will see a Bruin on both NBA Finals teams.

And that’s What’s Bruin this Thursday!


Go Bruins!