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Eli Lederman
OKLAHOMA CITY — Party hats. Streamers. Star sunglasses. A bubble machine, a disco ball and a unicorn piñata. The hottest club at the Women’s College World Series? It’s UCLA’s dugout.
“It is absolutely feral in there,” Bruins senior Taylor Stephens told ESPN this week. “This program has been partying ever since my freshman year and long before that, too. It’s tradition. Our team, our dugout, it’s a vibe — it’s an undeniable vibe. We just like to have fun.”
UCLA likes to have fun. And seemingly no program is having more of it during the opening weekend of the 2025 WCWS than the No. 9-seeded Bruins, who return Sunday for an elimination game against No. 7-seeded Tennessee (3 PM and ABC) following a 3-1 loss to No. 12 Texas Tech on Saturday.
Ranked third nationally in runs scored (481), eighth in home runs (98) and anchored by a pitching triumvirate of Taylor Tinsley, Kaitlyn Terry and Addisen Fisher, UCLA made plenty of noise en route to its 34th WCWS appearance — a Division I record. But it wasn’t until the Bruins arrived in Oklahoma City this week that their raucous and rowdy party officially spilled back onto the national stage.
Perennially among the loudest dugouts in college softball, the Bruins announced themselves with tinted glasses and disco lights in Thursday’s opener against Oregon. After Jessica Clements launched her two-run, walk-off home run, they celebrated at home plate with blue and gold party hats on their heads. On Saturday, UCLA took things up another notch, flooding Devon Park’s third-base dugout with bubbles and decorating its walls with paper streamers and balloons. A poster taped onto the dugout wall carried a simple message: “It’s party time.”
“The party has always been a part of the culture here,” said junior infielder Jordan Woolery, half of the Bruins’ historic power-hitting duo with Megan Grant this spring. “When we’re kind of tense, that’s not really the best version of ourselves. Having fun in the dugout, having fun on the field, all that chatter makes it easier just to play for each other with a sense of freedom.”
Props, such as the pinata the Bruins hung from the dugout ceiling Saturday night, have long been fixtures of UCLA’s dugout party. Woolery, a first-team All-American, has witnessed many evolutions of them. In the wake of previous Bruins standard-bearers Megan Fariamo and Anna Vines, she recalls pickle jars, boxes of Reese’s Puffs cereal and a parade of stuffed animals among the most cherished props that have popped up in the UCLA dugout in recent years.
When the likes of Woolery and Stephens encountered packets of party hats or goofy sunglasses before Game 1 on Thursday, there was no hesitation.
“We jumped right on them,” Stephens said. “The party hats are new. But the party is not.”
Indeed, UCLA carries a rich history of dugout antics, dating as far as the school’s dynastic softball rise in the 1980s. While the 2025 Bruins battled Texas Tech ace NiJaree Canady on Saturday, generations of former players exchanged stories and photos of WCWS dugout parties and props of the past through a WhatsApp group chat of UCLA softball alumni.
In some instances, the partying began even before the players left the team hotel.
“Every year in Oklahoma City, we would stay at the Embassy Suites and there were these two glass elevators that took you to your rooms,” 2004 national champion Tara Henry said. “On our way to the stadium, we would pile into them and have a team dance party, literally shaking the elevators an hour before a WCWS game.”
Even with a decades-long history, the scenes inside the Bruins’ dugout this week seemingly mark a stark departure from past eras of the program and the sport.
First under coach Sharon Backus and then Sue Enquist, UCLA built itself into college softball’s first superpower through no-nonsense intensity and stringent program standards. But while the ongoings of Bruins’ dugout celebrations and the generation of players inside them have evolved, former UCLA players like Henry see the same core pillars still propping up the program under 19th-year coach Kelly Inouye-Perez, who played for Enquist from 1989 to 1993 and spent 13 seasons as an assistant before taking over the program in 2007.
“It’s always been about how do we manage to stay together as a team and have fun, but ultimately be held accountable,” Henry said. “We’re seeing a more free, lighter type of team and a different expression of it. I think Kelly has been a big part of that. But believe me, they still have standards and still understand what it means to play for UCLA softball.”
The Bruins were quick to throw on their party hats in Thursday’s opener. However, how UCLA’s newest props found their way into the dugout remained a mystery to its players into the weekend before a group of former Bruins led by Taylor Sullivan, Alaiyah Jordan and Malia Quarles showed up with more Saturday, softball alums continuing the party culture.
“Shoutout to Party City in Moore, Oklahoma,” said Sullivan, who reached the WCWS three times with UCLA. “The Bruin party is just the epitome of UCLA softball. Playing together, playing for each other, trying to make the Bruin bubble proud.”
Inouye-Perez presented a clear message after a pair of late Texas Tech home runs sank the Bruins on Saturday, sending UCLA into an elimination game with Tennessee on Sunday. Less than 24 hours after facing one fireballer in Canady, the Bruins will be tested again Sunday by Lady Vols ace Karlyn Pickens, owner of the fastest recorded pitch in softball history.
“The bottom line is we’re not done yet,” Inouye-Perez said. “Now we just have more time to be able to play more games and get really hot. I’m excited. We can’t wait to get back out there.”
The Bruins, who scratched three runs off Pickens when they faced the hard-throwing junior in February, intend to extend their stay in Oklahoma City on Sunday. As long as UCLA remains in the WCWS field, the dugout party will go on.
“You’ll see more props tomorrow and the next day and the next day,” Stephens said. “The props are everlasting. They’re overflowing. The party doesn’t stop.”
