Tag: Kelly Inouye Perez

UCLA softball head coach encouraging response after WCWS loss

It was a terrific run for the Bruins.

The UCLA Bruins Women’s Softball team made quite the run this season. They were in the final few games to make a run for their 14th national title in school history. It came to a quick halt with back-to-back losses over the weekend. The Bruins lost 1-0 on Saturday to Oklahoma and then 3-1 on Sunday to Stanford.

The Bruins finished their season 43-12. After the game, Bruins head coach Kelly Inoyue-Perez was asked to reflect on the season. She had this to say, per Thuc Nhi Nguyen of The Los Angeles Times.

“When I put it all together, this is the greatest year of coaching I’ve experienced. Man, building belief, building trust, building a team that could fight. We were right where we needed to be, and we ran out of time.”

The Bruins started the season slow, with 3 wins in their first 7 games. After winning 30 of their final 35, they rank into two buzz-saw starting pitchers. On Saturday, Kelly Maxwell shut them out, and then NiJaree Canady held them to four hits on Sunday.

Maya Brady, who was once again an All-American, said this about the season: 

“Just a dream. I feel like as a little girl you always look at the program, the coaching staff, the players. You think they are just untouchable”.

Stanford is part of the final four, with action wrapping up later this week.

UCLA softball coach reacts to advancing to Super Regionals

Kelly Inouye-Perez is a happy coach.

It was a great weekend for UCLA Women’s Softball. They moved to 40-10 on the season with a trio of wins in the regional. Things will get tougher now with the Bruins heading to the Super Regional.

Head coach Kelly Inouye-Perez was thrilled with her team’s performance following the book-end wins over Grand Canyon and the come-from-behind over Virginia Tech:

“I’m repeating myself, but our goal is to be the best at the end,” Today was just absolute execution. We said we wanted to be prepared for one shot in that first inning, and that set the tone right there. … I’m just going to say I’m proud of my Bruins, I’m proud of Taylor (Tinsley), I’m proud of (Kaitlyn Terry) for getting us to this point. (Sharlize Palacios) has been the quarterback. She is behind the plate, but most importantly, for the seniors, we get to extend our season and we get to play another weekend. I’m proud that we get to do that in our house.”
Inouye-Perez, who has been the head coach for the Bruins since 2007, has over 800 wins as the head coach. She has two national titles since taking the post, both in 2010 and 2019. She played college softball at UCLA from 1989-1993.
A season ago, the Bruins lost in the regionals after going 52-7, snapping a streak of going to the College World Series 7 straight times, with the COVID-19 season of 2020 as the only exception.