Beach volleyball sweeps Pac-12 North Invitational after regaining No. 1 ranking

The Bruins continued their string of victories fresh off their elevation to the top ranking in the country.

No. 1 UCLA beach volleyball (19-1, 10-0 Pac-12) swept Arizona State (6-9, 3-5) in its first match and followed with a 4-1 win over No. 7 Stanford (14-7, 6-6) on Saturday before ending the weekend with a series of sweeps over Washington (1-7, 0-5) and No. 12 Arizona (15-3, 3-1) on Sunday.

All four matches of the Pac-12 North Invitational took place at GCU Beach Volleyball Stadium after a four-match homestand against top-ranked teams then-No. 3 LSU and then-No. 2 Florida State.

Coach Stein Metzger spoke on how emotionally-intense matches like those against LSU and Florida State served as great practice for the end of the season but posed challenges in the short term.

“Recovery was huge last week. … Even Tuesday the team was still tired and drained from the weekend,” Metzger said. “We didn’t overtrain, we did a lot more mental training than physical training and prepared ourselves as best we could to maintain our level and take care of business.”

The Bruins started the weekend with a 5-0 victory against the Sun Devils, with almost all of the courts winning in straight sets. UCLA had courts 3, 4 and 5 pushed to a third set against Stanford, but secured wins on courts 4 and 5 while dropping a point on court 3.

Sophomore Lindsey Sparks and freshman Devon Newberry took the lone loss for the Bruins in the entire tournament, but Sparks said she focused on the lessons to be drawn from this result.

“It’s so important for (Newberry) and I to come out firing, no matter who the opponent is,” Sparks said. “We need to be the aggressor and take the game rather than letting the game happen.”

Whereas UCLA finished Sunday with only one win being pushed to the third set — court 2 against Washington — all other matches were straight-set performances.

Freshman Rileigh Powers said the team is trying to add in more offensive creativity and have its mindset geared toward the postseason.

“It’s super fun to try new things and it’s great to work on it to expand our game,” Powers said. “Hopefully we’ll be able to use the things we’ve worked on in bigger games later on in the season.”

Sparks added that the constant desire to develop new aspects of the team’s game has been spurred by Metzger’s emphasis on improvement.

UCLA will have a quick turnaround to matchplay, with a doubleheader against No. 5 Loyola Marymount on Wednesday at Mapes Beach. The Bruins will then travel to San Luis Obispo for another quartet of matches in the span of two days.

According to Metzger, the team plans on having a physically lighter week of practice, with a greater focus being placed on mental and strategic preparation.

“We’ve been doing breathing exercises as a group and talking about mindset exercises going into games,” Metzger said. “We’ve also been asking them to expand their repertoire. … We’re walking them through a number of styles to play offensively and defensively depending on who we match up with.”

The first match against Loyola Marymount will begin at 10 a.m. on Wednesday, followed by a second match at 1:30 p.m.