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UCLA junior Austin Matautia was taken off the court on a stretcher on Saturday and will miss the rest of the season with a “season-ending ankle injury,” the school confirmed Tuesday.
Matautia, a 2016 Moanalua alumnus who transferred after playing two seasons at Hawaii, suffered the injury in the third set of a sweep of Penn State.
The 6-foot-4 outside hitter had started all but one match for the fourth-ranked Bruins, who are 16-4 heading into road matches against Brigham Young on Thursday and Stanford on Saturday.
Matautia is fourth on the team averaging 2.41 kills per set while hitting .295. He had five kills in nine swings without an error and three service aces when he suffered the injury against the Nittany Lions.
Matautia, who made the Star-Advertiser All-State team all four seasons in high school, transferred to UCLA after starting nine of the 25 matches he played in as a sophomore for the Rainbow Warriors. He hit .349 and finished fifth on the team averaging 1.91 kills per set.
Terao reaches final, earns weekly honor
American University senior wrestler Josh Terao won his 100th collegiate match, advanced to the finals of the Eastern Intercollegiate Wrestling Association championships and earned a third invitation to the NCAA Championships.
All of that resulted in the 2014 Mid-Pacific alumnus earning the GEICO student-athlete of the week honor on Monday.
Terao opened the EIWA championships with his 100th career win to become the ninth Eagle to reach that mark. Two more wins put Terao into the finals at 133 pounds, where he lost to the top seed 9-4.
In the process, Terao became just the seventh wrestler in school history to qualify for three different NCAA Championships.
His eight victories by technical fall tied the school’s single-season record and improved his career record to 22.
Nationals will take place Mar. 21-23 in Pittsburgh.
Vaught’s power surge nets NWC award
Pacific (Ore.) sophomore catcher Montana Vaught caught fire at the plate in a four-game sweep of Puget Sound over the weekend to earn the Northwest Conference softball hitting student-athlete of the week award on Monday.
The 2017 Kamehameha-Maui alumna hit .714 (10-for-14) in two doubleheader sweeps of the Loggers with four doubles, two homers, eight runs scored and 11 RBIs. That was good for a 1.429 slugging percentage.
Vaught has started all 19 games for the Boxers, who are 14-5 overall. She is second on the team among starters with a .415 average and leads the team with six doubles, six homers and 23 RBIs in 53 at-bats. She is slugging .943 for the season and has an on-base percentage of .492.
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