#2 UCLA Beach Volleyball Ends Regular Season at Home vs. #1 Southern Cal
UCLA. Southern Cal. #2 vs. #1. What a way to end the regular season!
It’s Senior Day for UCLA beach volleyball! The Bruins will honor the team’s five seniors, Jacqueline Quade, Savvy Simo, Megan Muret, Cami Sanchez, and Hannah Phair, prior to the start of today’s match against Southern Cal. Today’s match is scheduled for 3 pm PT.
Last Time Out
On Sunday, UCLA split a doubleheader in San Luis Obispo against Cal Poly and Southern Cal. The most intriguing thing to come out of both of Sunday’s matches was how UCLA coach Stein Metzger changed three of the Bruins pairings from Friday’s match against LMU.
Devon Newberry paired up with Lea Monkhouse, Abby Van Winkle paired with Megan Muret and Jacqueline Quade paired with Cami Sanchez. Metzger employed these changes for both matches on Saturday, though he had Van Winkle and Muret on Court Two against Cal Poly while Newberry and Monkhouse were on Court Two against Southern Cal.
Against Cal Poly, Rileigh Powers and Jaden Whitmarsh were the first pair to finish their dual when they defeated Vanessa Roscoe and Josie Ulrich, 21-10, 21-8. Quade and Sanchez wrapped things up second by beating Sam Strah and Eleonore Johansen, 21-18, 21-11. That gave UCLA a 2-0 lead, but the third dual to finish was on Court One where Savvy Simo and Lexy Denaburg fell to Macy Gordon and Emily Sonny, 21-16, 21-19. Newberry and Monkhouse clinched the match for the Bruins when they finished off Mariah Whalen and Tia Miric, 23-25, 21-14, 15-8. The final dual to finish was on Court Two where Van Winkle and Muret fell in three sets to Jayelin Lombard and Amy Ozee, 21-19, 19-21, 23-21.
The match against Southern Cal didn’t go anywhere as well as the one against Cal Poly. It began with a pair of dual losses on Court Five and Court Four. Sisters Audrey and Nicole Nourse beat Powers and Whitmarsh, 21-18, 21-14. Joy Dennis and Delaynie Maple gave th Trojans a 2-0 lead by defeating Sanchez and Quade, 21-16, 21-18.
That meant that UCLA needed to win all three remaining duals to win the match. Van Winkle and Muret got past Haley Hallgren and Hailey Harward, 21-16, 21-18, closing the gap to 2-1. Unfortunately, Julia Scoles and Sammy Slater topped Newberry and Monkhouse, 23-21, 21-18, winning the dual and clinching the match for Southern Cal. The last dual to finish was on Court One where Simo and Denaburg finished the match with a dual win for the Bruins by beating Megan Kraft and Tina Graudina, 33-31, 21-16.
Southern Cal Trojans
So, now, UCLA will host those same Trojans this afternoon at Mapes Beach this afternoon. The Bruins are looking to avoid a regular season sweep by Southern Cal.
While there’s no such thing as a moral victory, the Bruins had the closest thing to it on Saturday. Southern Cal swept the Bruins, 5-0, at the beginning of March. So, falling by a narrow 3-2 score should convince UCLA that they can beat the Trojans today since they came so close to doing that on Saturday.
It will also help that today’s match is in Westwood after getting shutout across town and losing narrowly on neutral turf last weekend.
I think the Bruins make a statement today to retake the #1 ranking in the country, but they may not sweep. I’m thinking 4-1, Bruins.
#2 UCLA Beach Volleyball (24-2)
Opponent: #1 Southern Cal Trojans (22-2)
Game Time: 3:00 pm PT, Thursday, April 22, 2021
Where: Mapes Beach, Los Angeles, CA
TV: None
Live Stream: Pac-12.com and the Pac-12 Now app
Live Stats: UCLA StatBroadcast
Official Preview
Go Bruins!!!! Beat $c!!!!
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Joe, why do you think we can win this one out? I wish the same but sc seems like the team that’ll present the biggest challenge this year. Looks like they have a new coach this year.
We lost 0-5 in the first match of the season. And lost 2-3 in the last. I believe our 1s beat theirs so that’s a good sign. I consider this a rubber match, so it’s key we win. We may see them in the finals again. They are a different team this year.