Beach volleyball
Joy Hong, assistant Sports editor
They couldn’t do it again.
In their second professional beach volleyball tournament together, rising UCLA senior Sarah Sponcil and former Bruin Lauren Fendrick fell short in the 2018 AVP San Francisco Open this weekend.
No. 6-seeded Sponcil and Fendrick reached the finals in the AVP Austin Open in May without dropping a single set until the finals. The pair, however, was eliminated in the quarterfinals this weekend, losing 22-20, 21-15 to No. 4-seeded Caitlin Ledoux and Geena Urango.
On day one of competition, Sponcil and Frederick defeated No. 11-seeded Laura Dykstra and Sheila Shaw in straight sets.
The duo then lost to No. 3-seeded Kelley Larsen and Emily Stockman 21-19, 21-15 on the same day, but they got another shot in the double-elimination formatted tournament.
Sponcil and Fendrick defeated No. 9-seeded Aurora Davis and Bree Scarbrough in the contender’s bracket on the second day before falling to Ledoux and Urango.
The pair missed the New York and Seattle AVP opens due to a fracture in Fendrick’s hitting hand.
Sponcil and Fendrick plan to continue playing together in 2018 FIVB Volleyball Women’s World Championship, including the Tokyo Open, Vienna Major and Moscow Open.
Men’s and women’s tennis
Gabriel McCarthy, assistant Sports editor
Two former Bruins have been advancing further in the knockout rounds at the championships at Wimbledon this past week.
Both Mackenzie McDonald and Jennifer Brady competed at the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club, sealing wins at the oldest tennis tournament in the world.
McDonald became the first UCLA men’s tennis alumnus to reach the round of 16 in a Grand Slam tournament since 2005, when Davide Sanguinetti competed in the U.S. Open. McDonald has reached a career-best 101 in the ATP rankings after his first career Grand Slam win at the Australian Open, but currently sits at 103. He advanced through the tournament stages with wins over Lithuanian Ricardas Berankis, 4-6, 7-6 (6), 6-3, 7-6 (6), Chilean Nicolás Jarry, 7-6 (5), 5-7, 3-6, 6-2, 1-0 (9) and Argentinian Guido Pella 6-4, 6-4, 7-6 (6).
McDonald’s trip to the fourth round is the best performance by a first-timer since Australian Nick Kyrgios’ effort in 2014. The American will face the Canadian No. 13 seed Milos Raonic in the round of 16.
At UCLA, McDonald was named an All-American after each of his three seasons from 2014-2016 and claimed the NCAA singles and doubles championships in 2016.
Brady reached the round of 32 in doubles play with her partner Shuko Aoyama. The pair was defeated by Gabriela Dabrowski and Xu Yifan 6-1, 4-6, 6-3. The 23-year-old earned Pac-12 Freshman of the Year and All-America honors in both her seasons at UCLA from 2013-2015.
Swim and dive
Angie Forburger, assistant Sports editor
UCLA swimming and diving received multiple academic honors from the College Swimming Coaches Association of America for the 2018 season.
The team as a whole earned a Scholar All-America Award, registering an overall GPA of 3.37. Teams must have above a 3.0 GPA to be considered for the award, and UCLA was one of eight Pac-12 schools to be honored.
Seven Bruins also received individual awards. Former senior Katie Grover and rising senior Sandra Soe were named First Team Scholar All-Americans and rising sophomore Emma Cain, former senior Marie-Pierre Delisle, rising sophomore Allison Goldblatt, rising senior Traci Shiver and rising sophomore Alice Yanovsky earned honorable mentions.
Grover became a CSCAA Scholar All-American for the fourth time in her career at UCLA, and Delisle and Soe each earned their third career awards.
To be named a First Team Scholar All-American, a student-athlete must have a GPA of 3.50 or higher and have competed at the NCAA Swimming and Diving Championships. For an honorable mention, athletes have the same GPA requirement, but they must have competed at an NCAA Regional or Zone Diving qualifier.
The Bruins’ swimming and diving program received seven individual awards at UCLA’s Scholar-Athlete Banquet this year and also helped UCLA Athletics in reaching a record of 351 student-athletes on the Athletic Director’s Honor Roll.
