Next time redshirt freshman Macy Toronjo steps onto the blue mat for her floor routine, look past her posing and her affectations. That’s all part of the performance, part of the character she pretends to be. Read more...
Photo: Redshirt freshman Macy Toronjo recovered from a torn rotator cuff she sustained as a high school senior, only to be diagnosed with Vogt-Koyanagi-Harada Disease at the start of this school year. (Angie Wang/Daily Bruin senior staff)
Out of place. That’s how some members of the bright blue-and-gold-clad UCLA men’s volleyball team felt, standing in the tall grass of a field in Pennsylvania. Read more...
Photo: Unlike many of his West Coast-native teammates, senior middle blocker Mitch Stahl hails from the rural town of Chambersburg, Pennsylvania. (Keila Mayberry/Daily Bruin staff)
When Kelsey O’Brien, a senior attacker on the UCLA women’s water polo team, first walked onto UCLA’s campus, she was 11 years old. She had a cousin who went to UCLA at the time so Kelsey and her father, Joe O’Brien, stopped by to visit after a water polo tournament. Read more...
Photo: Senior attacker Kelsey O’Brien won five Junior Olympic titles with the Santa Barbara Water Polo Club before she came to UCLA. She has deep connections with UC Santa Barbara’s water polo team, but committed to Westwood instead. (Aubrey Yeo/Daily Bruin senior staff)
Halfway through his first collegiate track and field season, one of the top sprinters in the country found himself hobbling around campus with a boot on his right foot. Read more...
Photo: Sophomore sprinter Rai Benjamin was one of the top sprint recruits in the nation two years ago, but an injury-plagued first year at UCLA placed him on the sideline for most of the season. He was cleared to run with less than a week to go until the qualifying cutoff for the NCAA championship, and rather than redshirting the season, he became a first-team All-American. (Angie Wang/Daily Bruin senior staff)
Two numbers make Daenan Gyimah, a freshman on the UCLA men’s volleyball team, stand out: He hits the ball when it’s over 12 feet in the air and his music has been streamed over 15,000 times on SoundCloud. Read more...
Photo: Freshman middle blocker Daenan Gyimah produces his beats using Logic, a music production program. Notable artists who also use Logic include Disclosure, Kygo and Twenty One Pilots. (Keila Mayberry/Daily Bruin staff)
An email was sent around the UCLA women’s basketball office marked “classified” and “top secret.” The team was in the middle of a battle – as it is every year – to recruit the best players in the country. Read more...
Photo: UCLA women’s basketball coach Cori Close utilizes a highly engaging and unorthodox recruitment method when it comes to building the future of the Bruins. (Jintak Han/Assistant Photo editor)
Like clockwork, Jim Harrick’s cell phone buzzed on April 3. So did those of other members of UCLA’s 1995 men’s basketball championship team, like Ed O’Bannon, Tyus Edney and Steve Lavin. Read more...
Photo: Former UCLA basketball manager Tony Luftman grew as a person primarily learning under coach John Wooden. Luftman was a member of UCLA’s championship team back in 1995. (Courtesy of Tony Luftman)
