The Rundown: May 4
Rising sophomore goalie Alex Wolf played for team USA at a tournament in Australia over the past week and was named the tournament’s best goalkeeper. Attackers rising redshirt senior Max Irving and rising senior Alex Roelse also competed. (Daily Bruin file photo)
Check out a breakdown of the UCLA sports stories you might have missed this week.
Men’s and women’s tennis
TuAnh Dam, Sports editor
Few schools can match the pedigree of the UCLA men’s and women’s tennis programs. Both squads have been in every single NCAA Tournament since 1977 and 1982, respectively, per College Tennis Today reporter Bobby Knight.
Consecutive years making the NCAAs – UCLA men have made it every year as have the Cal, Stanford, and UCLA women. pic.twitter.com/VYMHYYyALE
— Bobby Knight (@College10s2day) May 3, 2017
No other men’s program has reached the postseason for 41 straight years, and only Pac-12 rivals California and Stanford can match UCLA on the women’s side.
Both programs qualified for the 2017 team tournament, and the Bruins will have players in the doubles and singles tournament as well.
UCLA’s Mackie McDonald, who won the singles and doubles title last year, will not defend his title after leaving Westwood early for the ATP tour.
His former partner, junior Martin Redlicki, will team up with freshman Evan Zhu in this year’s tournament. The pair, which is seeded second in the tournament, has an 18-3 record this year and hasn’t lost since it dropped a three-set match in early March.
Redlicki will also compete in the singles tournament, along with teammate senior Gage Brymer, after both earned at-large bids.
In the women’s tournament, freshman Ena Shibahara earned berths in both singles and doubles competition.
Shibahara will be the No. 4 seed in singles before partnering with redshirt freshman Jada Hart in the doubles competition.
The individual tournaments will run May 24-29 after the conclusion of the team tournament May 23.
Men’s water polo
Michael Hull, assistant Sports editor
While the women’s water polo team was competing in the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation championship tournament in Westwood over the weekend, members of the men’s team wrapped up representing USA at the FINA Men Intercontinental Tournament.
Men’s water polo’s rising redshirt senior attacker Max Irving, rising senior attacker Alex Roelse and rising sophomore goalie Alex Wolf competed in six games in Australia over the past week, helping team USA win second place.
In the championship game against Australia, Wolf recorded 17 saves and Roelse tallied one goal. USA was only down by one at the conclusion of the first, second and third quarters, but could not hold Australia in the end, and lost by two goals 8-6.
Wolf, who split time in cage with Pepperdine goalie Zack Rhodes, was named the tournament’s best goalkeeper after the final game. Last year for UCLA, he redshirted behind redshirt senior goalkeeper Garrett Danner, who was nominated for the Cutino Award for the second year in a row.
Irving and Roelse both scored six goals over the course of the tournament, both of their most productive games coming in a 20-6 win over New Zealand that secured the Americans a spot in the gold-medal match. Irving scored four goals while Roelse added three. Rising California junior Johnny Hooper posted a team-high six goals in that game.
With the silver secured, the United States secured a berth in the 2017 FINA World League Super Final from June 20 to 25.
Women’s golf
David Gottlieb, assistant Sports editor
For the second month in a row, Lilia Vu was named Pac-12 Golfer of the Month.
The sophomore competed twice in April. She tied for first overall at the Silverado Showdown and finished in sole possession of first place at the Pac-12 championship about two weeks later.
Those two wins were Vu’s third and fourth in a row. No other golfer in the history of the program has ever won four straight tournaments.
The No. 1 UCLA women’s golf team finished second in its first April tournament and won the conference title. In the days following Pac-12s, the Bruins were assigned their regional seed.
As coach Carrie Forsyth predicted after her team took the conference crown, UCLA will be the No. 1 seed in a region outside of the West. The Bruins will travel to Lubbock, Texas, for NCAA regionals, which begin May 8.
