Bruins protect new den, claw back against Lions

There is the common philosophy in sports shared by coaches and athletes alike: Take things one at a time.

With the game between No. 8 UCLA sand volleyball and No. 9 Loyola Marymount deadlocked at two apiece, freshmen Ivey Schmitt and Anastasia Kunz entered the final set of their No. 5 doubles matchup facing a desperate situation. Winning or losing each point could be the difference between the Bruins preserving their undefeated record or accepting the program’s first loss on its new sand volleyball courts.

Turns out the day the Bruins mark their first loss at those courts will just have to wait.

“It never enters my mind that we can lose,” Schmitt said. “We play to win; we don’t play to lose.”

The duo took the set 15-5, improving the team’s record to 4-0, and culminated a contest full of tight situations for UCLA, where even a single point could have made the day end in LMU’s favor.

The Bruins got off to an inauspicious start against the Lions (2-7), with the No. 4 doubles pair of juniors Karly Drolson and Rachel Inouye losing their undefeated record for the season.

Meanwhile, on court one, the No. 2 doubles team of fifth-year senior Madie Smith and freshman Elise Zappia wasn’t playing up to the usual standards that led coach Stein Metzger to call them his “most stable team,” instead playing themselves into a 1-0 deficit.

“Usually, we’re consistent with energy, and that wasn’t happening for us,” Smith said. “We realized no matter what the other team was doing, we had to do that, and that’s when everything changed.”

On the brink of elimination, Smith and Zappia took the second set in a tightly contested 22-20 match, before sealing it in the third 16-14 to usher in the next rotation of matchups.

The Bruins’ comeback was only short-lived, however, as the new No. 1 doubles team of senior Zoë Nightingale and junior Kamila Tan were swept 21-9, 21-17. The No. 3 pair of junior Julie Consani and sophomore Laurel Weaver on the other hand just lost their one-set advantage and were now playing for their team’s survival. It proved to be another long and dramatic third set, as Consani and Weaver would claim the third set 16-14 to tie the matchup 2-2 and set up Schmitt’s and Kunz’s heroics.

It was a game where the Bruins had to claw for every point to get the win, but Metzger said that only solidified the point that every player in the light blue UCLA jersey that Wednesday afternoon was an integral part of the win.

“I think it was obvious today, and it’s helping our team recognize the team aspect. Because it’s in pairs, we get lost in ‘you’ and ‘your partner,’” Metzger said. “We stuck together, and each ranking and each level everyone counts the same. All the points are important. We’re a lot deeper, and it’s proving us a lot more successful this year than last year.”

With contributing reports by TuAnh Dam, Bruin Sports contributor.