UCLA
Loyola Marymount
No. 1 UCLA Opens 2020, Mapes Beach with No. 8 LMU
February 19, 2020 | Beach Volleyball
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LOS ANGELESย -- No. 1 UCLA (0-0) opens the 2020 season with a tough test right out of the gate when it hosts defending WCC Champions, No. 8 Loyola Marymount, on Thursday, Feb. 20 at 10:00 a.m. PT at its brand new facility, Mapes Beach. The Bruins fly out later that night to Honolulu, Hawaii, to compete at the Outrigger Duke Kahanamoku Beach Classic at Queen's Beach on Feb. 22 and 23. While in Hawaii, the Bruins will face three top 20 teams. The Bruins will open the tournament in pool play with the hosts, No. 5 Hawai'i on Saturday, Feb. 22 at 11:00 a.m. PT and will then face No. 3 LSU at 3:30 p.m. PT. The Bruins will conclude the day with No. 19ย Stanford at 5:00 p.m. PT. Then after all four squads have completed pool play on Saturday, the teams will be seeded and will play in a tournament on Sunday to decide the winner. More information on the times and seedings will be made available in Saturday's recap as well as on social media.
THIS WEEK'S SCHEDULE
Opponent:ย No. 8 Loyola Marymount (0-0)
Location:ย Mapes Beach
Date:ย Thursday, Feb. 20, 2020
Time:ย 10:00 a.m. (PT)
Opponent:ย No. 5 Hawai'i (0-0)
Location:ย Queen's Beach, Honolulu, Hawaii
Date:ย Saturday, Feb. 22, 2020
Time:ย 11:00 a.m. (PT)
Opponent:ย No. 3 LSU (0-0)
Location:ย Queen's Beach, Honolulu, Hawaii
Date:ย Saturday, Feb. 22, 2020
Time:ย 3:30 p.m. (PT)
Opponent:ย No. 19 Stanford (0-0)
Location:ย Queen's Beach, Honolulu, Hawaii
Date:ย Saturday, Feb. 22, 2020
Time:ย 5:00 p.m. (PT)
SERIES HISTORY
UCLA is 10-2 all-time against Loyola Marymount. The Bruins defeated the Lions twice last year, 4-1 at Sunset Canyon Recreation Center on Apr. 3 and 5-0 at Ocean Park on Mar. 26. The Bruins are 8-6 all-time against Hawai'i, defeating UH twice in 2019, a 5-0 win at Hawai'i on Feb. 24 and a 3-2 win in the first round of the NCAA Tournament on May 3. UCLA is also 8-0 all-time against LSU, defeating the Tigers three times a year ago, a 4-1 win at the East Meets West Invitational at Manhattan Beach Pier on Mar. 9, a 4-1 win at the Surf & Turf Invitational in Miami Beach, Fla., on Mar. 29 and a 3-0 win in the winner's bracket final of the NCAA Championship on May 4. UCLA is also 8-0 against Stanford, beating the Cardinal twice last year, 5-0 in a win in Honolulu, Hawaii, on Feb. 23, and a 4-1 victory in the Pac-12 North Tournament at Stanford on Apr. 7.
POLLING THE BRUINS
UCLA is ranked No. 1ย in both preseason polls in the AVCAย Collegiate Beach Volleyball Poll (9-of-11 first-place votes) and in the DiG Magazine Poll (13-of-18 first-place votes).
RETURNING ALL-AMERICAN
Senior Lily Justine (Chico, Calif.) is the Bruins' only returning All-American. Justineย enters her senior year with an overall record of 77-27. For the past two seasons, she hasย partnered with Sarah Sponcil, who graduated last year. The duo wentย 26-5 overall during the 2019 season (24-5 on court two and 2-0 on court one) and earned First Team All-America honors by the AVCA for the first time.ย Justine also earned First Team All-Pac-12, Pac-12 All-Tournament Team, and Pac-12 All-Academic First Team honors.
RETURNING STARTERS
The Bruins return a total of five starters from the 2019 season, including a trio of seniors looking to become the first collegiate beach volleyball players to three-peat as NCAA Champions. Lily Justine was on court two last year and went 26-5 with her partner Sarah Sponcil, who graduated. Savvy Simoย was on court four last year and went 30-7 with three different partners. She spent most of the year with junior Lea Monkhouse (22-5) on court four. Another one of Simo's partners was the third senior, Madi Yeomans, who proved she could play anywhere last year, going 6-0 on the season (2-0 on court two with Sponcil, 2-0 on court four with Simo in the NCAAs, and 2-0 on court five with sophomore Lindsey Sparks.
Sparks is another returning starter, playing mostly on court five with her graduated partner, Izzy Carey. The duo went 27-2 on court five a year ago with Sparks going 33-2 overall. Another sophomore that is a returning starter is Abby Van Winkle, who also lost her partner, Zana Muno, to graduation. The duo played mostly on court three, going 25-5 last year and sealed the Bruins' 3-0 NCAA Championship win over the Trojans. Van Winkle (29-5 overall), also went 4-0 with Sparks on court four last season. The final returning starter from last year isย Monkhouse, who went 22-5 in her first year in Westwood, Calif. Monkhouseย had to withdraw from competition in the NCAA Championships due to injury after the first-round win over Hawai'i, but will be back in 2020.
UCLA also returns two starters from the 2018 season that began in the starting rotation a year ago. Junior Mac May began 2019 with Simo and went 6-2 overall, 3-1 on courts three and four. She is 31-12 overall in her career as a Bruin. The final returning starter is junior Megan Muret, who began the 2019 campaign with Carey, going 9-0 on the year (7-0 on court five and 2-0 on court four). Muretย is 43-8 overall as a Bruin.
DUAL PARTICIPATION
The Bruins have three crossover student-athletes on this year's roster that will lend their experience and expertise to the beach volleyball program in 2020. They include redshirt freshman Hawley Harrer, junior Mac May, and senior Savvy Simo. May is 31-12 overall in her career while Simo is 78-23. Harrer has yet to compete for the Bruins after redshirting last season.
FRESH FACES
UCLA recently added its first-ever NCAA graduate transfer in Jacqueline Quade, a two-time indoor All-American at the University of Illinois. Two of the Bruins' incoming freshmen this season looking to make an immediate impact were namedย to the sixth annual AVCA High School Beach All-American First Team. They includeย Lexy Denaburg (Merritt Island, Fla./Merritt Island HS), and Rileigh Powers (Oviedo, Fla./Oviedo HS). Local product Devon Newberry (Santa Monica, Calif./Marymount HS) also arrived in Westwood for the 2020 campaign, looking to break into an already crowded lineup.
DEPTH PERCEPTION
UCLA has plenty of other talented players competing for the coveted 10-player spots on the five courts. They include redshirt freshmenย Jaden Whitmarsh, Piper Monk-Heidrich, Hawley Harrer, and Maggie Walters, and redshirt sophomores Hannah Phair and Cami Sanchez.
MAPES BEACH AND UCLA IN FOR BIG THINGS IN 2020
The Bruins open the 2020 season in their brand new home, Mapes Beach, on Thursday, Feb. 20 against No. 8 Loyola Marymount at 10:00 a.m. PT. UCLA has an exciting home schedule this season hosting some of the country's biggest and finest tournaments. It begins on March 7-8 when UCLA hosts the Pac-12 South Tournament at Mapes Beach where it will face No. 4 USC for the first time in 2020 while also playing host to No. 20 Arizona State as well as Oregon and Washington. The Bruins will also host the 4th Annual East Meets West Invitational at the iconic Manhattan Beach Pier on April 11-12 where UCLA will face No. 3 LSU, No. 2 Florida State, No. 10 FIU, and No. 16ย TCU on the weekend. Finally, the Bruins are slated to host the Pac-12 Championship for the first time on April 23-25 at Mapes Beach.
HALL OF FAME MENTORS
U.S. Olympian and UCLA Hall of Famer Stein Metzger is in his eighth season at the helm of the UCLA Beach Volleyball program. He sports an overall record of 147-41 (.782), His 100th career victory came in a 4-1 win at No. 13 Stanford on April 8, 2018.ย Metzgerย has been named the Pac-12 Coach of the Year in 2017 and 2018 and was also named theย USMC/AVCAย National Coach of the Year in both of those seasons. Metzger now has five NCAA Championships to his credit (three as a player in 1993, 1995 and 1996 and two as a coach in 2018 and 2019).
Entering her seventh year with the Bruins, Assistant Coach Jenny Johnson Jordan is also a U.S. Olympian and a recent UCLA Hall of Fame inductee (Oct. 5, 2018). Like Metzger, Jordan has also won NCAA titles as both a player (1991) and a coach (2018 and 2019). Jordan was also recently inducted into the CBVA Hall of Fame (Nov. 3, 2018) and was named theย AVCA National Assistant Beach Coach of the Year on May 9, 2019.
BRUINS COMPLETE COACHING STAFF WITH CASEBEER
Former UCLA standout and current professional beach volleyball player, Jeremy Casebeer, joins the Bruins' beach volleyball staff in 2020 as the Volunteer Assistant Coach. Casebeer, who was named the AVP'sย best server in 2017 and again in 2018.
PAC-12ย BEACH VOLLEYBALL
In 2016, beach volleyball was added as the 23rd Pac-12-sponsored sport beginning in the 2015-16 academic year. Now with nineย member institutions (Arizona, Arizona State, California, Oregon, Stanford, UCLA, USC, Utah and Washington)ย currently fielding beach volleyball teams, the Conference of Champions was the first major conference to sponsor beach volleyball as an official sport.ย As part of the addition, the Pac-12 will also sponsor a Beach Volleyball Championship for the fifth straight season. This year, UCLA will serveย as the host for the first time in program history on April 23-25 at Mapes Beach.
NCAA CHAMPIONSHIP INFORMATION
For the fifth straight season The NCAAยฎ National Collegiate Beach Volleyball Championship will be held May 1-3 at the Gulf Shores Public Beach and will be hosted by the city of Gulf Shores, Alabama and Orange Beach Sports Commission.ย The host institution for the beach volleyball championship will be the University of Alabama at Birmingham.ย Beach volleyball is the fastest-growing NCAA sport with 84 sponsoring schools at the Division I level, which is up from 69 in 2018, 65 in 2017 and 47 in 2016.ย The addition of the beach volleyball championship in 2016ย became the 45th NCAA championship administered for women and the 90th NCAA championship overall. The championship will have an eight-team bracket that will be played in a double-elimination format with teams consisting of five pairs of female student-athletes. After being placed on the list of emerging sports for women in 2009, beach volleyball is the fifth sport to succeed from the emerging sports program.
Tickets to the 2020 NCAA Beach Volleyball Championship are on sale now exclusivelyย here.
RECAPPING 2019
The UCLA Bruins are back-to-back defending NCAA Champions and went 35-3 on the year, losing only to crosstown rival USC.ย UCLA won last year's NCAA Championship as the No. 2 seed by defeating No. 7 Hawai'i 3-2 in the opening round. After that wake-up call, UCLA cruised to its second-straight national title with 3-0 victories over No. 3 Florida State, No. 5 LSU and No. 1 USC (didn't drop a set to the Trojans). The Bruins had four players named first team AVCA All-Americans, which included Megan McNamara, Nicole McNamara, Lily Justine, and Sarah Sponcil. The McNamara twins became the first duo to earn All-America honors all four years.
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