UCLA beach volleyball to face familiar foes in upcoming invitationals

The Bruins will return home against familiar opponents.

After competing on the road for the past two weeks, No. 1 UCLA beach volleyball (18-0, 3-0 Pac-12) will face off against No. 2 TCU (24-0, 4-0 CCSA) and No. 9 Hawai’i (15-6) in the Mapes Beach Invitational in Westwood on Thursday. The blue and gold will then host the UCLA Invitational at Manhattan Beach Pier with duals against TCU and No. 15 Florida International (15-1, 4-0 C-USA) on Saturday before facing No. 6 LSU (19-4) on Sunday.

The Bruins have already posted victories over the Tigers and BeachBows this season, including two wins over Hawai’i in Honolulu on Feb. 26. While the team has not faced the Golden Panthers since 2019, the blue and gold holds a 7-0 record all-time over its opponent.

Coach Stein Metzger said UCLA’s performance against Florida International will boil down to how well the Bruins can adapt.

“It comes out in the first few points what the other team’s strategy is going to be,” Metzger said. “Sometimes we are prepared for it and sometimes we are less prepared for it, so we have to make adjustments on the fly.”

Sophomore Rileigh Powers and senior Lea Monkhouse both clinched the Bruins’ victory over the Tigers on court two on March 20. The pair switched positions this season with Monkhouse moving to a blocking role and Powers taking on a defending position.

Monkhouse said while such adjustments have brought challenges, she is starting to be more comfortable in her role as the blocker.

“It definitely has not been easy, but it has been interesting and fun learning about myself during the whole process of transitioning,” Monkhouse said. “I have never fully blocked before, so it is definitely an interesting experience. It is getting a lot better, which is exciting, and we are just trying to do the best that we can.”

To close out the weekend, UCLA will head to the Manhattan Beach Pier, a venue where it competed in a preseason tournament last November. The pier is the host site of the AVP Gold Series, Manhattan Beach Open, which is a tournament known as the “Wimbledon” of beach volleyball.

Metzger said hosting the weekend’s tournament at Manhattan Beach provides an attractive draw for top teams around the country because of its history.

“The advantage for us is it is still local for us,” Metzger said. “We are in the same time zone, and the sand there plays quite deep – similar to how our sand plays at Mapes Beach.”

The Bruins remain undefeated midway through the season which marks a stark contrast to last year when they picked up a loss in their fourth dual of the year.

Powers said the team uses its wins as motivation to remain determined to achieve their collective goals.

“It’s great that we are undefeated, but we have one goal, and that is to win at the end in the national championship,” Powers said. “It pushes us even harder in practices and leagues.”

UCLA will face TCU at Mapes Beach on Thursday at 2:30 p.m. to kick off its weekend slate.