ANNUAL REPORT – INTRODUCTION Dear Bruins, Our department enjoyed an exceptional year both on and off the field of competition in 2017-18. We celebrated three NCAA Team Championships – men’s water polo, gymnastics and beach volleyball, and 11 of our athletic teams produced Top 5 NCAA finishes, a key indicator of the broad-based excellence we strive to achieve. Of even greater importance, we had 143 student-athletes earn their degrees from this university in June and officially embark upon the next chapter of their lives. Some of those graduates were athletes who had left UCLA to pursue their dreams of playing professionally, and returned to campus later in life, once their playing careers were behind them. “Student” comes first in student-athlete, and success in the classroom is a top priority. Throughout the 2017-18 academic year, our student-athletes earned Director’s Honor Roll accolades (3.0 GPA or higher) more than 950 times. In addition, our Graduation Success Rate (GSR) and Academic Progress Report (APR) numbers remained high across the board and among the best in the nation. UCLA’s overall GSR of 86% matched the national average for Division I schools. Our football team In addition, it was an extremely exciting year for our standard measure of broad-based excellence. Out of compiled a GSR of 83%, which was tied for the second- women’s soccer and men’s volleyball teams. Both 351 NCAA Division I programs, UCLA Athletics finished highest GSR among Pac-12 Conference schools (the programs finished as the national runner-up at their second for the eighth time in Directors’ Cup history. national average for FBS schools is 76%). respective NCAA Tournaments. Our men’s tennis, Our highest-ever points total of 1326 was an incredible women’s water polo and softball teams all advanced to improvement of 319 points over last year. It’s certainly In addition, five of our teams – men’s water polo, the national semifinals. The women’s basketball team worth noting that 21 of our 25 teams earned points in women’s basketball, women’s golf, softball and had a strong postseason run, securing an Elite Eight the Directors’ Cup in 2017-18. women’s tennis – recorded a GSR of 100 percent. Our appearance for the first time since 1999. Four teams department had 17 of 20 sports programs with a GSR won their conference’s regular-season title, including Away from the courts and off our fields, we began of 80 percent of higher. In fact, 11 of those 20 programs the gymnastics, women’s golf, beach volleyball and the school year having launched an unprecedented were at 90 percent or better. It’s impressive that so men’s tennis teams. partnership with Under Armour on July 1, 2017. As with many of our student-athletes not only meet these high our department’s multi-media relationship with IMG, expectations, but they almost always exceed them. This While team championships are among the most one of the main reasons we chose to partner with Under is a true testament to their work ethic and to the support celebrated accomplishments, it’s surely worth noting Armour is because we feel strongly that this partnership they receive from their academic advisors, coaches, several terrific individual efforts. Our gymnastics gives our student-athletes the tools needed to perform family members and fellow teammates. program had a pair of NCAA individual champions, as at the highest level. We continue to look forward to Christine Peng-Peng Lee captured the balance beam working together to make the next 14 years with Under In competition, from our fall season through the spring, title and Katelyn Ohashi secured the floor exercise Armour even better. we had multiple teams excel at the highest level. In title. Those individual championships were the first for addition to our trio of NCAA Team Championships, we each gymnast. On the tennis court, our men’s doubles In August 2017, we opened the Wasserman Football saw 12 teams finish among the nation’s Top 10, while duo of Martin Redlicki and Evan Zhu claimed the 13th Center. Two months later, we celebrated the opening of eight of those programs recorded Top 3 finishes. The NCAA doubles title in program history with a victory the Mo Ostin Basketball Center. These are two state- men’s water polo team captured its third NCAA title in over a doubles pair representing Ohio State. Both Lee of-the-art facilities that provide much-needed resources four years with a 7-5 victory at USC. The gymnastics and Redlicki were named recipients of the Pac-12 for three of our programs. In addition, these two premier program completed a comeback for the ages, landing Tom Hansen Medal in 2017-18, an award annually facilities free up space in other buildings that benefits its seventh NCAA championship. Our beach volleyball presented to each member institution’s outstanding a number of our other programs and student-athletes. team secured its first-ever NCAA title since the sport senior male and female student-athletes. was officially recognized at the NCAA level in 2016, As we look toward the 2018-19 school year, we reflect outlasting Florida State after maneuvering through the These accomplishments and standout performances on the historical significance that this athletic year tournament’s “contenders’ bracket.” all helped contribute to our second-place finish in the will mark the 100th season for a few of our sports Learfield Directors’ Cup, the collegiate athletics industry programs. A grand milestone of that nature deserves a true celebration, and we’ll be saving that celebration for next year (2019-20), which will coincide with the University’s Centennial celebration. I look forward to TABLE OF CONTENTS seeing you at our athletic events in the coming year and thank you for supporting the hard work of our student- 2017-18 News 3 athletes and coaches. Sport-by-Sport Recap 5 Bruins in the Community 8 Go Bruins! Academics and Life Skills 10 Capital Projects 12 Under Armour 13 Wooden Athletic Fund 14 Corporate Sponsors 31 The women’s golf team after winning the 2018 Pac-12 title. Dan Guerrero About the Annual Report Writing, editing and design by Alex Timiraos (Associate Director, Athletic Communications). Primary photography by Don Liebig (ASUCLA Campus Studio), Scott Chandler and Greg Turk. Photos were also provided by NCAA. Special thanks to Neema Barbod, Ric Coy, Liza David, Chris Iacoi, Emily Lerner, Lydell Sargeant and Shana Wilson for their editorial assistance. 2 2017-18 IN REVIEW NATIONAL CHAMPIONS! The men’s water polo, gymnastics and beach volleyball teams each captured NCAA team titles during the 2017-18 school year. Men’s Water Polo Outlasts USC, 7-5 Gymnastics Wins NCAA Title in Dramatic Fashion UCLA earned its third NCAA Championship in the last four seasons Peng-Peng Lee scored two perfect 10s to help UCLA secure the win Senior Alex Roelse and Matt Farmer each scored a game-high two goals to lead the Trailing two-time defending champion Oklahoma by .175 heading into the final men’s water polo team past USC, 7-5, to win the NCAA title on Sunday, Dec. 3, at rotation of the night, UCLA turned in a performance for the ages at the NCAA Women’s USC’s Uytengsu Aquatics Center. The victory helped land the 11th national title for Gymnastics Championships on Saturday, April 21. the men’s water polo program (and NCAA title No. 114 for the athletic department). Behind an NCAA Championship record score of 49.750 on balance beam, the Bruins Sophomore Alex Wolf played the entire game in the cage for the Bruins, recording 10 rallied to win the NCAA title, their seventh team championship, with an overall score saves and limiting the Trojans to just five goals (two on power plays). of 198.075, just 0.0375 ahead of the Sooners. The championship was decided on the event’s final routine, where senior Christine Peng-Peng Lee needed to score at least a With the contest tied, 5-5, early in the fourth quarter, Farmer scored the tie-breaking 9.975 to give UCLA the title. She scored a perfect 10 to secure the win. Prior to Lee’s goal with 6:05 to play. The Bruins led USC throughout the final quarter by a 6-5 performance, Kyla Ross kept UCLA in it with an impressive 9.9875. margin. Both teams made several defensive stops down the stretch, but none proved more important than UCLA’s stop in the final seconds during a power play by USC. Competing in her final collegiate meet, Lee tallied two perfect 10s that evening, also With time winding down in the final minute, Wolf collected the ball from a teammate scoring one on the uneven bars, the second time during the season that she scored and noticed that USC goalkeeper McQuin Baron was out of the cage at the other end. two 10s in one meet. UCLA’s major comeback was keyed in rotation five by a season- Wolf scored on a long-range heave with just two seconds remaining in the game, high 49.6375 performance on uneven bars. UCLA counted four scores of 9.9 or better putting the Bruins ahead 7-5. – a 9.9 from JaNay Honest, a season-high 9.9375 from Madison Kocian, a 9.95 from Ross and a 10.0 from Lee. The big scores brought the Bruins just .175 behind the USC led the match 3-2 at halftime and had claimed a 2-1 cushion after the first first-place Sooners going into the final event.