Thursday, March 28

No.3 UCLA beach volleyball falls to No. 6 Loyola Marymount, No. 1 USC


Sophomore Rileigh Powers lunges to receive the ball in a match April 3. The court five pair of Powers and graduate student Marlie Monserez have raced to an undefeated record through seven contests. (Joseph Jimenez/Daily Bruin)


Beach volleyball


No. 3 UCLA3
No. 4 Florida State2
No. 3 UCLA2
No. 6 Loyola Marymount3
No. 3 UCLA5
No. 13 Cal Poly0
No. 3 UCLA1
No. 1 USC4

The Bruins had a date with the top team in the country.

But before it would face off against its highly-ranked crosstown rival, the blue and gold stumbled against a different top-10 team.

No. 3 UCLA beach volleyball (27-4, 7-0 Pac-12) took on four opponents at the Center of Effort Challenge in San Luis Obispo, California, beating No. 4 Florida State (25-8, 6-2 CCSA) and No. 13 Cal Poly (17-15) on Friday and Saturday, respectively. However, the blue and gold closed the first day of play with a defeat to No. 6 Loyola Marymount (25-5, 4-0 WCC) before losing to No. 1 USC (27-1) on day two.

The Bruins held a 15-3 all-time record against the Lions entering Saturday, last facing them in the 2021 NCAA semifinals before losing to the Trojans in the final. Unlike its finish a year prior, UCLA lost to Loyola Marymount 3-2 to close its first day in San Luis Obispo with straight-set losses on courts one, two and three.

Court five’s pair of graduate student Marlie Monserez and sophomore Rileigh Powers picked up the Bruins’ lone sweep of the dual, beating the Lions’ Jacinda Ramirez and Isabelle Reffer 21-15, 21-16.

Monserez and Powers’ victory marked the only UCLA pair to win both matches Friday, and the two would eventually finish the weekend with four victories. The duo’s 20-22, 21-19, 15-13 tiebreaker victory against the Seminoles also proved to be the dual-clinching match for UCLA to emerge with a 3-2 win over Florida State.

Powers, who is undefeated through seven matches with Monserez, said the duo’s success comes from the two players’ ability to complement each other.

“Me and Marlie were really positive on the court,” Powers said. “She’s a great blocker. I think we’re both good at setting so it makes it really easy to run plays, and she’s just really fun to play with.”

Freshmen Natalie Myszkowski and Sophie Moore nabbed the blue and gold’s second point against the Lions in three sets on court four, but the contest had already been decided a match prior.

On Saturday, the Bruins’ court five duo also contributed to the team’s sweep over the Mustangs. Monserez and Powers followed their teammates’ straight-set wins with a 21-9, 17-21, 15-13 victory.

Despite Monserez and Powers’ success on court five, the rest of the Bruins came up short against USC, as UCLA lost 4-1 to its crosstown rivals. The Bruins beat the Trojans on March 5 at Mapes Beach, but USC flipped two courts at the Swanson Beach Volleyball Complex on Saturday.

After beating its crosstown rival on courts one and four in March, UCLA dropped straight-set defeats off the same matchups in the final dual of the weekend. Court one’s pair of sophomore Lexy Denaburg and junior Abby Van Winkle lost 21-12, 21-13 to the Trojans’ Hailey Harward and Tina Graudina. Myszkowski and Moore of court four also lost Sunday, falling to Audrey Nourse and Nicole Nourse by scores of 21-16, 21-14.

Denaburg said the defeats were more significant given the results of their previous matchups.

“It definitely hurts,” Denaburg said. “It just brings a lot of motivation going into next week, but it definitely is a little upsetting because we want to win those games.”

UCLA will take on Loyola Marymount and USC again Wednesday and Friday, respectively, to close out the regular season.

“I’m looking forward to the fact that the two teams we lost to, we get to play them again this week,” said coach Stein Metzger. “It’s hard to beat a good team twice, and I think we’re a good team.”

Daily Bruin senior staff

Palmero is a senior staff writer for Sports. He served as the assistant Sports editor on the softball, beach volleyball, women's volleyball, men's volleyball and men's golf beats from 2021-2022 and a Sports reporter on the beach volleyball and women's volleyball beats in 2021. He is a third-year mathematics and economics student.


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