Bruins Earn Nine MPSF Postseason Honors
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LOS ANGELES – Six different Bruins received nine postseason honors from the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation, as announced by the conference office today.
The awards were highlighted by freshman goalkeeper Lauren Steele (Old Greenwich, Conn./Orange Lutheran HS) being selected as the 2024 MPSF Newcomer of the Year, and by Bruin Head Coach Adam Wright being named the 2024 MPSF Coach of the Year.
Steele collected 192 regular season saves (11.92 SPG) with a remarkable .636 save percentage, while also scoring seven goals of her own. On Feb. 24 at No. 10 UC Irvine, Steele tallied a Bruin freshman record 21 saves (.808), the most by a Bruin goalkeeper in 14 years. In the title game of the Kalbus Invitational that weekend, she hauled in 16 saves (.640) in a 15-9 win over No. 2 Hawai'i, en route to sweeping MPSF Delfina Player and S&R Sport Newcomer of the Week honors. Steele totaled seven such weekly awards, capped off by two huge MPSF road wins over top-five teams to help UCLA finish an unbeaten regular season. She recorded 20 saves at Cal and 12 at USC, while helping limit each of those opponents to season-low scoring totals of six and five goals, respectively. Steele, the only freshman on either of the first two All-MPSF teams this year, is UCLA's third MPSF Newcomer of the Year recipient (Maddie Musselman, 2017; Rachel Fattal, 2013).
Wright led the Bruins to their first unbeaten regular season since 2008 with a 21-0 overall record (6-0 MPSF) and a top seed in the MPSF Tournament. More than half (11) of UCLA's wins came against nationally-ranked top-10 opponents, while seven of those were against the top-five. UCLA has held its opponents to single-digit goals in 11-straight games entering the postseason, and in 17 of the 21 regular season games overall, while scoring double-digits in all but three. The Bruins placed five players on this year's All-MPSF teams. This is Wright's first MPSF Coach of the Year honor on the women's side.
Sophomore utility Anna Pearason (Irvine, Calif./Orange Luthern HS) was the only Bruin to be named to the Delfina All-MPSF First Team. Pearson was on the MPSF All-Newcomer Team a year ago.
Three Bruins landed on the Delfina All-MPSF Second Team. Those student-athletes included graduate student attacker Hannah Palmer (Irvine, Calif./Orange Lutheran HS), sophomore attacker Taylor Smith (Newport Beach, Calif./Newport Harbor HS), and Steele. For Palmer, it marked the third All-MPSF honor after being on the First Team in 2021 and the All-Newcomer Team in 2020. It was Taylor's second league honor as she was named to the MPSF All-Newcomer Team in 2023.
Freshman utility Panni Szegedi (Budapest, Hungary/Kolping Katolikus Iskola) was the lone Bruin to receive Delfina All-MPSF Honorable Mention accolades.
A pair of Bruin freshmen were on the MPSF All-Newcomer Team, which included Steele and Szegedi.
The Bruins are currently 21-0 overall and finished 6-0 in the MPSF are seeded first for the upcoming 2024 MPSF Women's Water Polo Championship held this weekend at Indiana. UCLA has received a bye in the first round and will take on the winner of No. 4 USC and No. 5 Arizona State in the second semifinal on Saturday, April 27 at 12:30 p.m. PT/3:30 p.m. ET.