Beach volleyball to face Pepperdine in bid to remain undefeated at Mapes Beach

The Bruins have another opportunity to defend their home sand after a win against a rival.

No. 4 UCLA beach volleyball (4-1, 3-0 Pac-12) secured a bounce-back win Saturday against No. 8 California (3-2, 1-1), sweeping the Golden Bears at Mapes Beach.

The Bruins are undefeated at Mapes Beach since its opening in 2020 and will put this record to the test against No. 9 Pepperdine (1-3) in a doubleheader Thursday.

In preparation to face off against top-10 competition, coach Stein Metzger said UCLA is looking to run a more aggressive style of volleyball. Metzger said this entails assuming more risk when it comes to serving, attacking and running plays.

“We’ve traditionally not been the biggest team in the top-five rankings, so we have to do some other things to match people’s size,” Metzger said. “We use our quickness and our athleticism to match that, and we need to get back to that.”

Metzger added that when the Bruins implement a more advanced style of offense, such as running some shoot sets and some back sets, it puts more pressure on members of the team to control the ball. Metzger also said he found the team ends up controlling the ball better as a result of this pressure.

Metzger said this adjustment bodes well for UCLA at Mapes Beach, but even more so when they play on hard-packed surfaces, such as USC’s Merle Norman Stadium.

“When the surface gets a little bit harder and everyone is getting higher, there’s a lot of net play, attacking and big blocking,” Metzger said. “It’s even more important for us to run a fast offense and control the ball well.”

On top of their sweep against the Bears, the Bruins saw the return of sophomore Abby Van Winkle, who registered a straight-set win on court three with junior Lea Monkhouse.

Van Winkle said she was filled with a mixture of adrenaline, anxiety and excitement going into the match with her new partner, but once she got out there, she was ready to go.

“Playing with (Monkhouse) has been super comfortable, even though we haven’t been playing that long together,” Van Winkle said. “It felt really smooth, and I was really happy with the way we played.”

Van Winkle credited this comfort with her new partner to the way she and Monkhouse are coming together, regardless of differing playing styles.

“I really know what she wants as a player, and she knows what I really want as a player,” Van Winkle said. “We complement each other and are flowing really well, … it’s definitely clicking.”

If this partnership continues on court three into UCLA’s upcoming matchup with Pepperdine, Van Winkle and Monkhouse will face one of the team’s successful pairs from its last outing. The Waves’ own tandem on court three, Melanie Paul and Simone Priebe, was the only pair to register a win in Pepperdine’s 4-1 loss to USC on Sunday.

Looking ahead to the upcoming match against Pepperdine, both Metzger and Van Winkle stressed the importance of being flexible and staying in the moment.

“We just have to go into it expecting that they’re going to want to beat us,” Van Winkle said. “We’ll take each game one at a time like it’s the only game we’re going to play.”

The Bruins will start their doubleheader Thursday against the Waves at 10 a.m., with the second match at Mapes Beach following at 1:30 p.m.