This post was updated April 11 at 9:39 p.m. 

Beach volleyball

Lori Garavartanian, Daily Bruin contributor

The Pac-12 tournament will mark seven weeks since UCLA’s last loss if the team continues its 15-game winning streak in the coming days.

Before then, the Bruins must first face familiar foes to maintain their momentum.

No. 1 UCLA beach volleyball (24-4, 1-0 Pac 12) will take on No. 10 Loyola Marymount (21-8), No. 4 Florida State (25-5) and No. 6 Cal Poly (21-3) in the Center of Effort Challenge at the Swanson Beach Volleyball Complex in San Luis Obispo from Friday to Saturday.

The three games will be some of the last games the Bruins play prior to the Pac-12 championship starting April 24.

“We have to finish strong,” said coach Jenny Johnson Jordan. “The tournament in Cal Poly has a lot of top teams in the country. It’s not the kind of tournament you think you’re going to cruise through.”

The Bruins have played all three teams prior to this upcoming weekend in the 2024 season.

They’ve secured three combined wins against Florida State and Cal Poly, only dropping three sets total out of 15 in the games. Their last time playing against Loyola Marymount was of a different nature, however, delivering one of UCLA’s four losses of the season in the season’s first tournament.

The upcoming tournament will be held away from home, meaning the Bruins have secured an undefeated season at home this year.

Graduate student Devon Newberry said the team is prepared for the away environments to come in the next few games, especially with the amount of traveling it has done so far.

Johnson Jordan said the team wants to peak at the end of the season, and she is hoping there is more to uncover about what the team can still do.

“It’s going to be the same competition we would see at nationals,” she said. “We want to be prepared and ready for that.”

Men’s tennis
Jeremy Chen, Daily Bruin senior staff

Bad luck is no stranger to sports.

From shooting slumps to the yips to broken serves, misfortune can strike at any time.

Redshirt junior Timothy Li and junior Giacomo Revelli are experiencing this firsthand – the duo has been winless in doubles for over two months.

UCLA men’s tennis (10-6, 2-2 Pac-12) will face off against its sixth and seventh Pac-12 opponents – Stanford (13-4, 5-0) on Friday at 1:30 p.m. and California (10-7, 3-1) on Sunday at 12 p.m at the Los Angeles Tennis Center.

The Bruins are riding the high of two consecutive wins in the Pacific Northwest, but that doesn’t reflect the performance of their top doubles pairing.

“Our No. 1 team is struggling. There’s no doubt about it,” said coach Billy Martin. “I don’t know what it is. We’re working hard. At this point you almost think it’s more mental than anything.”

Li and Revelli haven’t won a doubles match since Feb. 7, with seven losses and four unfinished matches on their slate since. Martin said the slump was due to a loss of confidence, yet added that he doesn’t know how to break them out of it.

However, after UCLA secured a 4-0 victory over Washington, the game’s doubles loss remains a fixture in the team’s mind.

“The doubles point is very key in a lot of these matches,” said redshirt senior Govind Nanda. “We got it done on a couple of the courts, and it  gave us some momentum into the singles.”

Nanda and his partner, junior Alexander Hoogmartens, have won three consecutive doubles matches, but underachievement from Li and Revelli has led to a splotchy record. The Bruins haven’t strung together consecutive doubles point wins in over a month.

With the end of the season fast approaching, consistency in doubles will be key for an extended postseason run.

The Bruins have five matches to figure it out.

Women’s tennis
Olivia Simons, Daily Bruin senior staff

Three schools stand in the Bruins’ way of the last-ever Pac-12 regular season championship.

And Tuesday, freshman Bianca Fernandez earned UCLA’s sixth Pac-12 Player of the Week title, the most in one season in program history.

Before it can finish out its conference slate, however, No. 15 UCLA women’s tennis (14-4, 7-1 Pac-12) will head to Malibu for a match against No. 7 Pepperdine (11-5, 2-0 WCC) on Thursday before playing Oregon (10-10, 1-7) on Saturday for its last home match of the regular season.

“It doesn’t get any easier now,” said coach Stella Sampras Webster. “The next few weeks are going to be important for the team, so making sure there’s not a lot of outside noise and really focusing on the right things.”

While Pepperdine and UCLA have never shared a conference, they have competed 81 times – more matches than UCLA has played against six of 10 other Pac-12 teams, including Oregon. The Bruins hold a 59-22 historical advantage as well as the most recent win between the two teams, but the Waves have won four of the last five.

Pepperdine boasts the No. 2 doubles team in the nation while two singles players sit in the top 20. One rank behind her highest-ranked teammate, No. 14 Lisa Zaar took down then-No. 106, then-sophomore Kimmi Hance last season. Zaar will most likely face No. 37 sophomore Tian Fangran this season, should lineups for both teams remain consistent Thursday. Tian clinched the victory for UCLA last season against Pepperdine ranked eight spots below her opponent. This year she will enter her likely contest with Zaar ranked 23 spots below her.

“We both know each other’s teams. We play every year,” Sampras Webster said. “So, we’ve talked about possibilities of who there’ll be playing. … Every match from now on is going to be a very high-level team, and so (I am) preparing them for a strong battle and taking care of details.”

Following the Bruins’ nonconference finale, they will have a day off and then return to the Los Angeles Tennis Center to take on Oregon. The Bruins have only lost to the Ducks once all-time and last season swept them two days after playing the Waves.

The match will also be Senior Day for UCLA, honoring senior Vanessa Ong and redshirt senior Sasha Vagramov.

“I’m excited for both of them, and they’re definitely going to be missed with the team,” Sampras Webster said. “It’ll be a good day.”