UCLA Olympic Sports Round-Up: Women’s Tennis Remains Undefeated

Here is your Olympic Sports round up for the week of January 28.

#4 Women’s Tennis

The UCLA women’s tennis teams picked up a pair of shutouts this weekend, defeating Saint Mary’s 7-0 on Saturday and UC Santa Barbara 7-0 on Sunday.

In their defeat of Saint Mary’s, freshman Abbey Forbes defeated Jordan Harris for the victory, bookending a strong day started by freshman Sasha Vagramov in her defeat of Liesl Pieters and junior Abi Altick’s win over Aubane Ville. Redshirt senior Jada Hart, junior Annette Goulak, and sophomore Elysia Bolton all added wins for the Bruins.

While routing UC Santa Barbara, Atlick notched another straight-set win, while Bolton, Forbes and Goulak took wins of their own. In doubles play, the #2 team of Bolton and Hart defeated Amit Lev Ari and Elizaveta Volodko of UCSB, and Atlick and Vagramov took down Shakhnoza Khatamova and Tiffany Lagarde.

Men’s Golf

The UCLA men’s golf team shot 23 over par overall in the Southwestern Invitational last week, good enough for a seventh place finish. Junior Devon Bling came in 18th place as the top representative from UCLA with four birdies and two bogeys in the end.

At the Sea Beggar Invitational this week, all four Bruin participants were in the top 15 as of the start of play Tuesday with Tony Hendricks in second place, Mason Greene and Ahmed Ali tied for fifth with two others, and Rory Feng in 15th. At the end of the tournament, Ali and Hendricks finished second and third, respectively, Greene, finished sixth, and Feng finished 19th.

#7 Men’s Volleyball

The #8 UCLA men’s volleyball team lost a hard fought four-set match against the #13 Princeton Tigers last Thursday. The Bruins started set one out in front, a lead which they never relinquished and they took the set, 25-19. However, UCLA would drop the next three sets, 25-22, 25-22, and 25-23. Alex Knight led UCLA with a career-best 15 kills and five digs, and Austin Matautia added 11 kills, two aces, and three blocks. UCLA bested the Tigers in three major categories, hitting .361 for the match to .360 for the Tigers, nine aces to five for Princeton. and 7.0 blocks to 5.0 for the Tigers.

On Saturday, UCLA rebounded by defeating #4 Long Beach State, 3-1. This was LBSU’s first loss of the season and their first regular-season home loss since March 2016. The Bruins were blocking machines that night with freshman Cole Ketrzynski tallying a season-high tying 17 kills. Captain Matt Younggren added a career-high seven blocks, which gave UCLA a 14.0 to 3.0 advantage on the block for the match.

Track and Field

The UCLA track and field team split their efforts last weekend between the University of Washington Invitational in Seattle and the University of New Mexico Invitational in Albuquerque.

In Albuquerque, UCLA was hot from the start, notching wins in the men’s high jump and women’s weight throw to open the day. Sophomore Sean Lee cleared 2.18m (7-01.75) for the win, beating his own indoor personal-best mark of 7-01.50 and taking his #3 position on the all-time UCLA indoor high jump list. Junior Alyssa Wilson threw 22.10m (72-06.25) for the her second win in the weight throw this season, beating second place by over eight feet. Additionally, Nate Esparza finished in second for the men’s shot put.

In Seattle, Christina Rice took fourth overall in the 3,000m with a time of 9:20.01, beating her personal best by 27 seconds and clocking the third-fastest indoor time in school history. Teammate Colin Burke finished in fourth place in the men’s 3,000k with a time of 7:59.34, moving him into fifth place on UCLA’s all-time indoor list in the event.

#16 Men’s Tennis

The #16 UCLA men’s tennis team dropped two on the road to the UC Berkeley Golden Bears and the Stanford Cardinal. At UC Berkeley, Govind Nanda and Keegan Smith posted singles wins against top-50 opponents for the Bruins, but Berkeley’s Ben Draper defeated UCLA’s Patrick Zahraj for the win. #7 Keegan Smith temporarily gave the Bruins some momentum with a defeat of #34 Yuta Kikuchi, but UCLA lost two of three doubles matches with one unfinished to give the win to UC Berkeley, 4-2.

At Stanford, Govind Nanda gave UCLA a head start with a defeat of #18 Alexandre Rotsaert, but that would be the only win in singles play for the Bruins. UCLA took two of three doubles matches, but that would not be enough for the victory. Ultimately, the Cardinal took the win, 4-2.

Swimming and Diving

The UCLA swimming and diving team lost to Stanford, 178-119 last Friday at Spieker Aquatics Center. It was the Bruins’ first loss of the season. UCLA’s only victory came from freshman Rachel Rhee in the 100 free, finishing with a time of 50.56. Freshman Hannah Butler was able to cement her place with NCAA Zone Championships-qualifying scores in both 1-meter and 3-meter diving.

Unfortunately, UCLA suffered several close losses in the meet, losing the 200-meter relay with a time of 1:39.80, just behind Stanford’s 1:39.36. Claire Grover finished in second place in both the 50 free and 100 breast, just over a half second behind Stanford in both events. The 200 fly was the closest race of the day, with the top three swimmers finishing within .19 seconds. Senior Amy Okada finished third after leading for most of the race.

The following day, UCLA dropped another meet to UC Berkeley, 186-114. In the loss, junior Ruby Neave won both diving events and Grover took first in the 100 breast. Those would be the only Bruin wins for the day.

In 3-meter diving competition, junior Alice Yanovsky was third with a score of 286.73, adding a third Zones-qualifying score of the season. In 1-meter diving, Butler placed third with a final score of 260.25.

#10 Women’s Basketball

The UCLA women’ basketball team split a road trip to the Arizona schools, falling 92-66 to the Arizona Wildcats but bouncing back and defeating the Arizona State Sun Devils, 70-61.

In the loss at Arizona, junior Michaela Onyenwere led the Bruins with 17 points and 12 rebounds for her fifth double-double of the season. However, Arizona’s Aari McDonald, the Pac-12’s leading scorer, put up 27 points and Sam Thomas added 20 points of her own.

UCLA fared better against the Sun Devils, with senior guard Japreece Dean scoring 18 points, good enough to make her the top scorer of the day. Freshman guard Charisma Osborne added 15 points. Arizona State had a pair of double-digit scorers with Robbi Ryan notching 15 points and Reili Richardson totalling 12.

#3 Women’s Water Polo

The #3 UCLA women’s water polo team picked up a pair of wins this weekend, defeating the San Jose State Spartans on Friday 18-10 and the Fresno State Bulldogs on Saturday, 16-10.

Against San Jose State, freshman Abbi Hill scored four goals and both Katrina Drake and Lexi Liebowitz notched hat tricks. Redshirt freshman goalie Georgia Phillips had seven saves and played all but the last 1:24 of the game. Freshman Quinn Winter finished off at goalie to seal the win for UCLA, blocking a penalty shot at the end of the match.

In the win over Fresno State, sophomore Bella Baia scored three for a hat trick and junior Jahmea Bent played three quarters in the net, getting eight saves for the Bruins while allowing seven goals. Winter took the fourth quarter and had four saves for the match. While Fresno State was able to score in all four quarters, UCLA outscored the Bulldogs by at least one goal in each quarter.