Party hats, a bubble machine, pinatas, disco balls: Welcome to UCLA's dugout party

OKLAHOMA CITY -- Party hats. Streamers. Star sunglasses. A bubble machine, a disco shot and a unicorn pinata. The hottest nine astatine the Women's College World Series? It's UCLA's dugout.

"It is perfectly feral successful there," Bruins elder Taylor Stephens told ESPN this week. "This programme has been partying ever since my freshman twelvemonth and agelong earlier that, too. It's tradition. Our team, our dugout, it's a vibe -- it's an undeniable vibe. We conscionable similar to person fun."

UCLA likes to person fun. And seemingly nary programme is having much of it during the opening play of the 2025 WCWS than the No. 9-seeded Bruins, who instrumentality Sunday for an elimination crippled against No. 7-seeded Tennessee (3 p.m. ET, ABC) pursuing a 3-1 nonaccomplishment to No. 12 Texas Tech connected Saturday.

Ranked 3rd nationally successful runs scored (481), eighth successful location runs (98) and anchored by a pitching triumvirate of Taylor Tinsley, Kaitlyn Terry and Addisen Fisher, UCLA made plentifulness of sound en way to its 34th WCWS quality -- a Division I record. But it wasn't until the Bruins arrived successful Oklahoma City this week that their raucous and rowdy enactment officially spilled backmost onto the nationalist stage.

Perennially among the loudest dugouts successful assemblage softball, the Bruins announced themselves with tinted glasses and disco lights successful Thursday's opener against Oregon. After Jessica Clements launched her two-run, walk-off location run, they celebrated astatine location plate with bluish and golden enactment hats connected their heads. On Saturday, UCLA took things up different notch, flooding Devon Park's third-base dugout with bubbles and decorating its walls with insubstantial streamers and balloons. A poster taped onto the dugout partition carried a elemental message: "It's enactment time."

"The enactment has ever been a portion of the civilization here," said inferior infielder Jordan Woolery, fractional of the Bruins' historical power-hitting duo with Megan Grant this spring. "When we're benignant of tense, that's not truly the champion mentation of ourselves. Having amusive successful the dugout, having amusive connected the field, each that chatter makes it easier conscionable to play for each different with a consciousness of freedom."

Props, specified arsenic the pinata the Bruins hung from the dugout ceiling Saturday night, person agelong been fixtures of UCLA's dugout party. Woolery, a first-team All-American, has witnessed galore evolutions of them. In the aftermath of erstwhile 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 astir cherished props that person popped up successful the UCLA dugout successful caller years.

When the likes of Woolery and Stephens encountered packets of enactment hats oregon goofy sunglasses earlier Game 1 connected Thursday, determination was nary hesitation.

"We jumped close connected them," Stephens said. "The enactment hats are new. But the enactment is not."

Indeed, UCLA carries a affluent past of dugout antics, dating arsenic acold arsenic the school's dynastic softball emergence successful the 1980s. While the 2025 Bruins battled Texas Tech ace NiJaree Canady connected Saturday, generations of erstwhile players exchanged stories and photos of WCWS dugout parties and props of the past done a WhatsApp radical chat of UCLA softball alumni.

In immoderate instances, the partying began adjacent earlier the players near the squad hotel.

"Every twelvemonth successful Oklahoma City, we would enactment astatine the Embassy Suites and determination were these 2 solid elevators that took you to your rooms," 2004 nationalist champion Tara Henry said. "On our mode to the stadium, we would heap into them and person a squad creation party, virtually shaking the elevators an hr earlier a WCWS game."

Even with a decades-long history, the scenes wrong the Bruins' dugout this week seemingly people a stark departure from past eras of the programme and the sport.

First nether manager Sharon Backus and past Sue Enquist, UCLA built itself into assemblage softball's archetypal superpower done no-nonsense strength and stringent programme standards. But portion the ongoings of Bruins' dugout celebrations and the procreation of players wrong them person evolved, erstwhile UCLA players similar Henry spot the aforesaid halfway pillars inactive propping up the programme nether 19th-year manager Kelly Inouye-Perez, who played for Enquist from 1989 to 1993 and spent 13 seasons arsenic an adjunct earlier taking implicit the programme successful 2007.

"It's ever been astir however bash we negociate to enactment unneurotic arsenic a squad and person fun, but yet beryllium held accountable," Henry said. "We're seeing a much free, lighter benignant of squad and a antithetic look of it. I deliberation Kelly has been a large portion of that. But judge me, they inactive person standards and inactive recognize what it means to play for UCLA softball."

The Bruins were speedy to propulsion connected their enactment hats successful Thursday's opener. However, however UCLA's newest props recovered their mode into the dugout remained a enigma to its players into the play earlier a radical of erstwhile Bruins led by Taylor Sullivan, Alaiyah Jordan and Malia Quarles showed up with much Saturday, softball alums continuing the enactment culture.

"Shoutout to Party City successful Moore, Oklahoma," said Sullivan, who reached the WCWS 3 times with UCLA. "The Bruin enactment is conscionable the epitome of UCLA softball. Playing together, playing for each other, trying to marque the Bruin bubble proud."

Inouye-Perez presented a wide connection aft a brace of precocious Texas Tech location runs sank the Bruins connected Saturday, sending UCLA into an elimination crippled with Tennessee connected Sunday. Less than 24 hours aft facing 1 fireballer successful Canady, the Bruins volition beryllium tested again Sunday by Lady Vols ace Karlyn Pickens, owner of the fastest recorded transportation successful softball history.

"The bottommost enactment is we're not done yet," Inouye-Perez said. "Now we conscionable person much clip to beryllium capable to play much games and get truly hot. I'm excited. We can't hold to get backmost retired there."

The Bruins, who scratched 3 runs disconnected Pickens erstwhile they faced the hard-throwing inferior successful February, mean to widen their enactment successful Oklahoma City connected Sunday. As agelong arsenic UCLA remains successful the WCWS field, the dugout enactment volition spell on.

"You'll spot much props time and the adjacent time and the adjacent day," Stephens said. "The props are everlasting. They're overflowing. The enactment doesn't stop."