Beach volleyball nails opening games against CSU Bakersfield, Cal Poly
UCLA beach volleyball opened up their season by winning nine of 10 courts in their two matches against Cal Poly and Cal State Bakersfield. The Bruins will put their undefeated record on the line against two top-5 teams this weekend. (Daily Bruin file photo)
By Grant Sugimura
March 2, 2017 9:55 p.m.
Nine wins and only one loss – that was UCLA beach volleyball’s opening day.
No. 3 UCLA (2-0) swept Cal State Bakersfield in five games and took down Cal Poly 4-1.
UCLA’s only loss of the season came when the freshmen tandem of Chanti Holroyd and Lily Justine fell to Cal Poly’s Brayden Gruenewald and Taylor Gruenewald in two sets of 21-19. Prior to that, however, the fifth court team took down CSU Bakerfield’s Ally Barber and Kayla Tinker 21-10 and 21-19.
Other than that, the Bruins were nearly perfect.
The Canadian duo of sophomore twins Megan and Nicole McNamara rolled through their opponents, winning all four sets by at least six points.
On the second court, freshman Madi Yeomans and graduate student Kamila Tan opened the season with two wins. The pair notched an especially dominant first set over CSU Bakersfield’s Jocelyn Rodriguez and Ashley Prater by a score of 21-6.
The third and fourth courts got the same results with the freshman tandem of Torrey Van Winden and Savvy Simo, indoor volleyball teammates, notching a perfect four, and sophomore Izzy Carey and junior Elise Zappia doing the same.
Up next, UCLA will travel down the road to Malibu to face No. 4 Pepperdine and No. 1 USC on Saturday.
