UCLA Beach Volleyball Can't Overcome Slow Start, Loses NCAA Title
The Bruins lost at the first two pairs and weren't able to recover.

Regardless of the sport, you expect a matchup between UCLA and Southern Cal to be a knockdown, dragout fight. In that respect, this morning’s beach volleyball national championship match did not disappoint. Unfortunately for the Bruins, the final result did.
The first two pairs went to the Trojans. Court Four was the first pairing to finish up when Southern Cal’s Ashlyn Rasnick-Pope and Jenna Johnson swept Marlie Monserez and Jess Smith, 22-20, 21-14. Meanwhile, Court Two went to three sets, but Abby Van Winkle and Peri Brennan fell to Madison White and Madison Shields, 24-22, 21-23, 15-9.
That left UCLA with their backs against the wall. In order to win the title, they would need to win all of the three remaining pairs.
On Court One, Lexy Denaburg and Maggie Boyd came through against Megan Kraft and Laynie Maple by sweeping them, 21-17, 21-13. Then, over on Court Five, Devon Newberry and Jaden Whitmarsh finished their sweep of Olivia Bakos and Gabby Walker, 21-18, 21-19, to tie the match up at two points each.
That set the stage for what could be a miraculous comeback. After all, UCLA’s Haley Hallgren played four seasons of beach volleyball across town for Southern Cal where she won two titles before transferring to Michigan to play indoors. Meanwhile, she was diagnosed with lung cancer and had a part of a lung removed. She transferred to UCLA this season because she had a year of beach volleyball eligibility left. How incredible would it have been if Hallgren and partner Rileigh Powers could score the decisive point that gave the Bruins 122, especially after they dropped their first set to sisters Audrey and Nicole Nourse, 21-18?
Hallgren and Powers managed to win the second set, 21-19, to give the Bruins that hope, but they fell behind early in set three and dropped the deciding set, 15-11, to give the Trojans this year’s championship.
Overall, it was a thrilling match for a title that has never been won by anyone outside of the 12 miles that lie between Westwood and South Central. This one just went the wrong way in that final set.
Go Bruins.
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Six days of the week, these Bruins beat the Trojans. Unfortunately, this was not one of those days.
As I noted at the beginning of the final, the windy conditions were not ideal. I don’t know if this contributed to what appeared to be UCLA’s tentative approach, especially in serving, but SC’s aggression paid off early, and it gave the Bruins too steep of a hill to climb. And there were so many unforced errors as well, which is uncharacteristic for this team.
I know from personal experience that some recaps are particularly painful to write. For me, that includes defeats when we didn’t show our best and losses to SC, so today is a double dose of agony. Therefore, I cannot thank Joe enough for this post as well as all of the great work done by The Mighty Bruin team to highlight the achievements of our volleyball players on the court and in the sand this championship weekend. Thank you, Joe! Thank you, Dimitri! We Bruins fans so appreciate your effort and dedication.
What is the future for UCLA beach volleyball? Head coach just left for Texas. Big 10 doesn’t have any teams.