April 17, 2007

LOS ANGELES - UCLA has earned enough points to win the 2006-07 Lexus Gauntlet Championship for the third time in the six-year history of the competition, but has not yet clinched due to some possible post-season encounters. Last weekend, the UCLA baseball team recorded its first-ever three-game series sweep of the Trojans at Dedeaux Field, giving UCLA the 57.5 points required to win the 18-sport head-to-head competition.

The 2006-07 season also marked the first time that UCLA swept USC in football, men's basketball and baseball. USC last accomplished the feat in 1940-41.

UCLA registered 10 points in football, men's basketball and volleyball and totaled five points in women's soccer, women's cross-country, women's swimming and diving, baseball and women's water polo. USC captured 10 points in women's basketball and earned five points in men's water polo. The Trojans also gained 2.5 points in both women's and men's tennis, two sports that will see UCLA face USC later this week.

Although the Bruins have technically earned enough points to win the Gauntlet, USC could still win back 2.5 points in men's volleyball (USC would have to defeat UCLA in the MPSF Tournament championship match - the Bruins are seeded No. 5, USC No. 8) or women's water polo (USC would have to defeat UCLA in MPSF Tournament and NCAA competition).

Other remaining meetings between the Bruins and the Trojans include women's golf, women's rowing, women's track and field, men's track and field and men's golf. UCLA currently owns a 57.5 to 22.5 edge in the Lexus Gauntlet standings.

In six years of the competition, UCLA and USC have alternated winning the Lexus Gauntlet trophy. The Bruins captured the rivalry's crown jewel in 2003 and 2005, while the Trojans won the challenge in 2002, 2004 and 2006.

The Southern California Lexus Dealers are proud to be the leading sponsors of both UCLA and USC athletic departments as well as the exclusive title sponsor of every USC-UCLA athletic competition. For more than 80 years, these champion rivals have competed for the ultimate city-wide title of number one. Now, based on the practice of knights who challenged each other to duel by throwing their armored gauntlets to the ground, Lexus has issued the absolute challenge: the Lexus Gauntlet competition.