Other Bruin Sports
Previous topic | Next topic Return to Forum
Woochifer
Joined: 12/15/11 Posts: 9,118
BeachVB: #3 UCLA starts season today in Hawaii
Posted Thu, Feb 20 2:25 pm
The UCLA beach volleyball team gets off to a fast start today in Hawaii for the Outrigger Duke Kahanamoku Beach Classic.

UCLA starts play today against #2 TCU (UCLA took that dual 4-1). They will play #11 ASU tonight. The team will play #12 Hawaii and #5 Stanford on Friday. Saturday's schedule will start with #7 LMU and conclude against #1 Southern Cal.

https://uclabruins.com/news/2025/2/19/beach-volleyball-no-3-ucla-opens-2025-in-hawaii-vs-no-2-tcu

The Bruins will have to replace four key players from last year, including All-American Lexy Denaberg, Devon Newberry, Jaden Whitmarsh, and Rileigh Powers. A key newcomer is freshman Sally Perez, who is currently paired with returning All-American sophomore Maggie Boyd as UCLA's #1 pair.
Woochifer
Joined: 12/15/11 Posts: 9,118
BVB: UCLA plays #5 Furd and #7 LMU today-shocking results
Posted Fri, Feb 21 1:44 pm
In response to BeachVB: #3 UCLA starts season today in Hawaii (Woochifer)
The Bruins have a dual with #5 Stanford scheduled for 4:45pm PT at the Outrigger Duke Kahanamoku Beach Classic in Honolulu.

The Cards already played earlier today, and they upset #1 Southern Cal 3-2. They had lost to #2 TCU and #7 LMU yesterday.

But, the most shocking part of this tournament is that today's Southern Cal loss was not their first defeat. They'd already lost to LMU yesterday 4-1.

UCLA will need to stay focused because today's matches are both against teams that have already knocked off Southern Cal. The Bruins will play Southern Cal tomorrow.

Yesterday, the Bruins won their duals against #2 TCU and #11 ASU 4-1. The Bruin losses came on Court 3 against TCU, and on Court 4 against ASU. UCLA actually had more difficulty with ASU than with TCU. The Bruins swept in 3 of their matches against TCU, while they went 3 sets in 3 of the matches in the ASU dual.

https://uclabruins.com/news/2025/2/20/beach-volleyball-no-3-ucla-beats-no-2-tcu-no-11-asu-4-1-on-opening-day

Perez and Boyd looked solid at #1, as did the veteran pairing of Peri Brennan and Natalie Myszkowski (who's moving up from #5) at Court #2.

A key to the Bruins' season could be on Court #5, where senior Sophie Moore (who played at #2 as a freshman, but was injured most of last season) is paired with freshman Harper Cooper, who redshirted last year. If Moore can establish her form from her freshman year, that can be a very potent pairing at #5 (or an opportunity to move up and shift the other pairings down if Moore and Cooper click as a pair).

On Court #3, the coaches are trying Ensley Alden (who had a stellar record at #5 last season) and Kenzie Brower (who played mostly at #3 last year with Jessie Smith, who did not play yesterday). On Court #4, veteran Tessa Van Winkle (who mostly played at #4 last year) is paired with freshman Alexa Fernandez.

So, 3 freshmen made the starting lineup yesterday. We'll see if Coach Johnson-Jordan is going to use the early duals to try different pairings, or if she will use the same approach from last year and largely stick with the early pairings for a while.

But, with the losses by Southern Cal and TCU yesterday. UCLA all of a sudden has an opportunity to jump to the top of the rankings early. (Keep in mind though that Coach Blanton at Southern Cal relies a lot on transfers, and shuffles players around in the early going -- they've won 3 titles in a row under his watch, so don't underestimate them)
Woochifer
Joined: 12/15/11 Posts: 9,118
BVB: LMU dual is tomorrow; UCLA sweeps Hawaii 5-0
Posted Fri, Feb 21 2:02 pm
In response to BVB: UCLA plays #5 Furd and #7 LMU today-shocking results (Woochifer)
I made a mistake on my earlier post. UCLA will play LMU on Saturday.

Lot of very competitive matches being played at this tournament, which includes a lot of the top teams. For the Hawaii dual, UCLA kept the top 4 pairs, but used senior Reagan Hope and freshman Adelina Okazaki as the #5 pair. Courts #1, #3, and #5 each went 3 sets. On #5, UCLA got smoked in the first set 21-10, but the Bruin pair regrouped and took the next 2 sets to win the match.
Woochifer
Joined: 12/15/11 Posts: 9,118
BVB: Bruins beat Furd in a 3-2 thriller
Posted Fri, Feb 21 5:14 pm
In response to BeachVB: #3 UCLA starts season today in Hawaii (Woochifer)
UCLA and Stanford were tied at 2-2 and the dual came down to the 3rd set on Court #5. The Bruins prevailed in that set 15-13 and took the dual against the Cards 3-2. 3 of the matches in the dual went 3 sets, so this was very tightly contested.

With the Pac-12 teams moving to the MPSF this year, this is really the only place where UCLA will have the intensity of the former Pac-12 matchups, with Cal and Stanford joining the west coast B1G members.

UCLA will get a look at a tough LMU team tomorrow and get their first shot at #1 Southern Cal, which will likely drop from the top spot. Who replaces them at #1 will depend on whether the Bruins win the head-to-head matchup tomorrow. As I said, Coach Blanton does a lot of tinkering at the start of the season and fields a roster full of transfers. They'll be more formidable at the end of the year, and the Bruins will likely see a lot more of them before the season's over.
Woochifer
Joined: 12/15/11 Posts: 9,118
BVB: UCLA beats #7 LMU, loses to #1 Southern Cal
Posted Sun, Feb 23 10:30 am
In response to BeachVB: #3 UCLA starts season today in Hawaii (Woochifer)
At the moment, there's not a lot of daylight between the top teams, as UCLA beat #7 LMU 3-2 in Saturday's early dual. The Bruins then played #1 Southern Cal and lost 3-2 with the dual decided on Court #3 in 3 sets.

Hard to tell which team will be ranked #1 this week. Southern Cal lost twice this weekend to LMU and #5 Stanford. UCLA beat the common opponents but lost to Southern Cal.

#4 Cal Poly has yet to play, and the Bruins will face them next weekend in the Battle For LA tournament.

https://uclabruins.com/news/2025/2/22/beach-volleyball-no-3-ucla-splits-a-pair-on-final-day-in-hawaii
Woochifer
Joined: 12/15/11 Posts: 9,118
BeachVB: UCLA moves up to #1 in this week's ranking
Posted Tue, Feb 25 12:38 pm
In response to BeachVB: #3 UCLA starts season today in Hawaii (Woochifer)
Even though the Bruins lost the last dual against #1 Southern Cal at the Outrigger Duke Kahanamoku Beach Classic, they came away from that elite tournament with only 1 loss. Southern Cal lost to both #5 Stanford and #7 LMU, so there was no way they were going stay at #1. #2 TCU and UCLA were the only teams with 1 loss, and because the Bruins beat TCU head-to-head, the Bruins vaulted over both teams to take the top spot in this week's ranking.

https://www.avca.org/polls-awards/polls/?_divisions=national-collegiate-womens-beach

Still a long way to go, and UCLA will have at least one more shot at Southern Cal this season.
Flat 4
Joined: 1/13/14 Posts: 3,894
LMU had only 1 loss as well
Posted Tue, Feb 25 8:42 pm (Edited Tue, Feb 25 8:43 pm)
In response to BeachVB: UCLA moves up to #1 in this week's ranking (Woochifer)
They are number 2 now.
Woochifer
Joined: 12/15/11 Posts: 9,118
Thx for the correction!
Posted Thu, Feb 27 2:48 pm
In response to LMU had only 1 loss as well (Flat 4)
I got TCU and LMU crossed up. UCLA did beat both of them last weekend, and LMU got the win over Southern Cal.
Finally
Joined: 2/07/09 Posts: 1,636
Roster and BVB Landscape
Posted Sat, Mar 01 10:26 am
In response to BeachVB: #3 UCLA starts season today in Hawaii (Woochifer)
First time taking a look at the W. Beach VB roster and NCAA landscape and had a few thoughts:

1. I don’t recognize a lot of the Bruin roster and wondered if this is still part of the coaching transition from Metz to JJ. Then I read your post in this thread and realized how much we graduated.

2. Took a look at other teams’ rosters wondering if we had UCLA players transfer out (again before reading your post about grads) and pleasantly noticed that there only seemed to be two transfers to Texas (originally from TX and I assume recruited by Metz to UCLA)

3. UCLA appears to need to lean on FR this year more than usual. Don’t seem to have the depth in the middle years as in years past.

4. LMU is strong this year. They’ve made a leap.

5. A lot of parity this year.

6. Blanton still concerns me. He will every year.
Woochifer
Joined: 12/15/11 Posts: 9,118
#1 UCLA goes 4-0 at MPSF Midseason Rumble
Posted Mon, Mar 10 1:00 pm
In response to BeachVB: #3 UCLA starts season today in Hawaii (Woochifer)
Some tough competition this weekend at Stanford as the Bruins took on MPSF conference rivals Oregon, #5 Stanford, #16 GCU, and #9 Cal. The Bruins won all 4 duals, and should retain the #1 ranking this week.

Stanford played UCLA tough in their prior dual, but the Bruins had an easier time dispatching the Cards on Friday, winning 4-1.

#9 Cal has been a surprise in the early going, and they were 9-1 going into Saturday's dual against UCLA with a win over #3 Southern Cal on Friday. The Bears took the Bruins down to the wire, with the dual tied 2-2 and the outcome coming down to a 3rd set on Court #1.

https://uclabruins.com/news/2025/3/8/beach-volleyball-no-1-ucla-takes-down-two-more-ranked-teams
Woochifer
Joined: 12/15/11 Posts: 9,118
#1 UCLA beats former coach Metzger; goes 4-0 for wknd
Posted Sun, Mar 16 3:36 pm
In response to BeachVB: #3 UCLA starts season today in Hawaii (Woochifer)
Kind of a weird start to the East Vs West tournament this weekend in Manhattan Beach, as UCLA went up against former Coach Stein Metzger and Texas for the first time. The Bruins dispatched the Longhorns rather easily 4-1. But, this is a potentially budding rivalry as Metzger has Texas ranked #12 in the program's 3rd year of existence. The Bruins also beat #11 LSU, #8 Florida State, and #19 FIU to go 4-0 for the weekend.

Next year will be a bit of a watershed for the program, as the MPSF expands to add Texas, Florida State, South Carolina, and LSU. The four schools currently play in the CCSA, which will disband after this season. The MPSF has traditionally functioned as a west coast conference for sports not sponsored by the power conferences. The addition of 3 SEC teams and 1 ACC team will be a big expansion of teams from those conferences. Currently, the MPSF only has 2 ACC schools (Cal and Stanford for beach volleyball) and 1 SEC school (Oklahoma for men's gymnastics).

The Bruins continue their heavily tournament-focused schedule next weekend with the Best In The West tournament in Laguna Beach. They'll play Cal Poly, LMU, Hawaii, and Washington.