Megan and Nicole McNamara are officially UCLA Bruins.
The Grade 12 twins from Tsawwassen signed their national letter of intent on Monday and will attend UCLA next fall. The McNamaras will be members of the Bruins sand volleyball team which plays a spring schedule against mainly other California schools and concludes its season at the national championships in early May.
The pair is coming off winning a silver medal at last summer’s 2014 Youth Olympic Games in Nanjing, China. They went 8-0 to start the Youth Olympic Games, defeating an American pair (2-1) in the quarterfinals and a German pair (2-0) in the semifinals, before losing to Eduarda Santos Lisboa and Ana Patricia Silva Ramos of Brazil (21-17, 13-21, 14-16) in the finals. The McNamara twins were named the "Most Consistent Team" by a survey of media, coaches and FIVB staff at the Youth Olympic Games.
They are currently winding down their high school volleyball career with the South Delta Sun Devils, looking for their fourth consecutive B.C. championship next week in Parksville. They verbally committed to UCLA back at the start of their Grade 11 year.
“The McNamara twins are skilled beyond their years and have an exceptionally high volleyball IQ," said UCLA coach Stein Metzger in a school release. "They have already had a wealth of international experience including a recent silver medal in China. I'm excited to see this duo contribute to the UCLA volleyball legacy.”
In early August of this year, the twins celebrated their 17th birthday by winning Pool A at the FIVB U19 World Championships in Porto, Portugal. They would go on to win a bronze medal with a 2-0 (21-16, 21-12) win over Kristyna Adamcikova and Katerina Valkova from the Czech Republic. It was only the second medal for Canada in an FIVB age group event.
Both are 5-foot-9-inches tall while Megan is right-handed and plays on the left side, Nicole is left-handed and plays on the right side. Mischa Harris has been their coach at the Sideout Beach Volleyball Club in Vancouver for the last three years where the McNamaras are also the three-time Canadian National Champions (U16, U18 and Women's Open).
Nicole said she chose UCLA because, “I have always dreamed of living in California and UCLA is a great school in both academics and athletics and the weather is nice.” Megan said she chose UCLA because, "of the academics, coaching staff and location." Proving the psychic twin connection, they both also mentioned they chose UCLA because "it is only a short flight to Vancouver."
