Check out a breakdown of the UCLA sports stories you might have missed this week.
Women’s golf
David Gottlieb, assistant Sports editor
Lilia Vu won another tournament Tuesday, meaning that the sophomore has finished first in three straight tournaments.
No. 5 UCLA women’s golf finished second overall at this week’s Silverado Showdown, with Vu shooting an 8-under 208 to tie for the top overall individual spot. No. 4 Stanford won the tournament, beating the Bruins by nine strokes.
In the history of the program, only one other women’s golfer has won three consecutive tournaments in a single season. Charlotte Mayorkas won four in 2003-2004.
Other Bruins who put together strong performances at the Silverado Showdown include freshman Mariel Galdiano, who tied for 11th with a 2-under 214, and sophomore Bethany Wu, who shot an even 212 to tie for 13th in the field of 93.
Tennis
TuAnh Dam, Sports editor
UCLA’s men’s and women’s tennis teams had a big weekend – not only did they win all three of their matches, but they also swept the Pac-12 Player of the Week awards. Freshman Evan Zhu and redshirt freshman Jada Hart helped their teams clinch victories this weekend over Stanford and Colorado, respectively.
Zhu topped the Cardinal’s David Wilczynski 6-4, 7-6 in the Bruins’ 4-2 comeback win. UCLA had been in a 2-0 hole before reeling off four straight matches to clinch their third-straight Pac-12 win and move into first place in the conference.
Hart dropped just three games in a 6-2, 6-1 decider over Colorado’s Annabelle Andrinopoulos. The redshirt freshman and junior doubles partner Terri Fleming won both their doubles matches to move to 11-0 on the season.
Zhu and the men’s team will take on Arizona and Utah at home this week while Hart and the women’s team will be taking on Arizona State and Arizona on the road.
Track and field
Michael Hull, assistant Sports editor
The men’s team fell in this week’s rankings by six places, though not without picking up some individual awards.
Sophomore distance runner Arturo Sotomayor picked up Pac-12 Men’s Track Athlete of the Week this week after running a 3 minutes, 42.60 seconds in the 1500-meter, a time that currently ranks fifth in the nation.
It was a personal best by nearly nine seconds, in an event where nine seconds isn’t even the difference between being No. 1 in the nation and No. 100.
Sotomayor is ranked 36th in the country for the 800-meter, an event in which he also posted a personal best earlier this year by dropping under the 1:50 mark with a 1:49.20.
Softball
David Gottlieb, assistant Sports editor
Rachel Garcia took three different awards following No. 8 UCLA softball’s series win over then-No. 2 Oregon, winning USA Softball Collegiate Player of the Week, Pac-12 Conference Pitcher of the Week and Pac-12 Freshman of the Week honors.
The redshirt freshman pitcher threw a complete-game shutout Friday, scattering five hits across her seven innings of work without walking a batter. On Saturday, she entered in the seventh inning of a scoreless tie and put up three zeros, giving her offense time to put up a walk-off run in the bottom of the ninth. She also threw the first 2 2/3 innings of Sunday’s loss.
Garcia also went 4-for-8 with an RBI and two doubles.
An ERA of 1.79 gives Garcia the 10th-best mark in the Pac-12. Her 12 wins, two of which she picked up last weekend, put her in a tie for fifth in the conference of champions.
