A closer look at the summer activities of UCLA athletes

It’s a mystery what collegiate athletes do during the summer break.

With no sports in season, some enjoy spending their weeks away from UCLA in their hometowns or vacationing elsewhere. Others are hitting the books and getting ahead in their classes or spending time in the gym preparing for their upcoming season.

Here are what some Bruins have been up to in the summer of 2016.

Monique Billings, women’s basketball

The rising junior has balanced her summer with preparatory workouts, summer session A and personal vacation time.

With the team’s first day of official practice slated for October 2, the optional summer training sessions have revolved around individual workouts in the weight room, 3-on-3 drills in the gym and relaxing exercises, such as yoga.

Billings also gets together with her team about once a week for what she dubbed “team time.”

“Right now we are reading a book called ‘Grit’ and we’ve met with some motivational speakers,” Billings said. “We’ve been discussing how we can coach ourselves in the right direction. I think that could be our team theme for this year.”

When late August rolls around, Billings and the rest of the Bruins will head to Australia for a series of five exhibition games against a variety of college and international teams.

Garrett Danner, men’s water polo

The starting goalkeeper for the defending NCAA champions has spent most of his summer in the pool. The rising senior said the men’s water polo team practices all throughout the three-month summer break and only gets about 10 days of time off from practice.

Though he journeyed to Hawaii for one of his past summer breaks, this year Danner said he’s keeping it more local. Last year’s national water polo player of the year is traveling along the California coast with stops in Monterey and San Simeon before heading back to Los Angeles.

Even though official practices don’t begin until August 1, many of the summer training sessions have featured most of the players on the 2016 roster. The commitment over the break is one aspect that has made the team so formidable in recent years, Danner said.

“That’s something that our coach does really well – keeping our mentality straight and making sure everyone is the same page in training,” Danner said. “We try to stay away from training different than we play and we’ve done a pretty good job with that so far.”

Elise Zappia, beach volleyball

After UCLA’s strong season on the sand this spring, Zappia took a month off before getting back into shape. With no team practices until late in the winter, players utilize summer break to get their individual needs figured out.

Since the beginning of July, the rising junior has been traveling up and down the California coast to cities like San Francisco, Santa Barbara and Santa Cruz. Zappia hasn’t always been teaming up with her fellow Bruins, but rather with players from rival universities in Southern California.

“I’ve been playing a couple (games) with (rising sophomore) Izzy Carey, but a good majority have been with girls from USC and Pepperdine,” Zappia said. “It’s been nice to mix it up and play with different people. We grew up with girls who go there so we know each other and have been doing well.”

Madison White, swimming and diving

Along with more than 2,000 American swimmers, White traveled to Omaha, Nebraska from June 26 until July 3 to compete in this year’s U.S. Olympic swimming trials. White swam in the trials for the third time in her swimming career, qualifying for this year’s 100-meter and 200-meter backstroke and the 200-meter freestyle.

Although she didn’t make it onto the Olympic team, White wasn’t disappointed by her performance and said it was much better than her first two experiences in 2008 and 2012.

“It was different because I knew what to expect,” White said. “I wasn’t as nervous and I had a positive attitude throughout the whole thing. I was very relaxed and swam some of my best times.”

Since she returned from the trials, the rising senior has helped supervise some swimming camps for kids and high school athletes. Before official practices start in September, White said she’s going to spend most of her time studying for the LSAT and traveling to Iowa to help her younger brother move in for his freshman year of college.

Louise Hazell, women’s water polo

The Swedish native has spent most of her summer in Los Angeles thus far, playing with the UCLA club water polo team and working as a receptionist on campus. The club team has scrimmaged against other universities, such as Michigan and UC Irvine, and even against a United States youth team.

The rising sophomore will travel back home to Sweden in August to practice with another club water polo team – one she’s played on since she was 10 years old. The water polo season in Sweden starts in November, so the preseason will begin once she returns, Hazell said.

Hazell won’t be stuck in the pool during her time in Europe though. She plans on hiking in the mountains in northern Sweden with her family.

“I have never done it actually,” Hazell said. “My mom has done mountains in Sweden. Most of the population lives quite south and it is very beautiful up north.”

Christian Hessenauer, men’s volleyball

The 6-foot-5 opposite hitter is one of the few Bruins on men’s volleyball that has stayed in Los Angeles for the summer. The rising junior said he’s been attending summer session A, taking a life science class and film class.

When he’s not in the gym lifting early in the morning or in class, Hessenauer is working around the UCLA campus as part of a student work program. Most of the jobs he’s done involve manual labor, something he enjoys.

Though players report in September to begin practices, none of their training sessions can be led by a coach inside a gym until late October, per NCAA compliance rules. This year’s team has a chance to repeat last year’s success, Hessenauer said.

“I feel like the Final Four could be the same exact teams again,” Hessenauer said. “We are still in the mix. We just have to come in with a mindset to accomplish what we want to.”