UCLA beach volleyball to take on four duals at Pac-12 North Invitational
Associate head coach Jenny Johnson Jordan coaches during the UCLA Invitational on April 3. Johnson Jordan and No. 3 UCLA beach volleyball will continue conference play at the Pac-12 North Invitational on Saturday and Sunday. (Joseph Jimenez/Daily Bruin)
beach volleyball
California
Saturday, 10 a.m.
Stanford
Pac-12 Bay Area
Arizona State
Saturday, 5 p.m.
Stanford
No TV info
Oregon
Sunday, 8 a.m.
Stadium or City
No TV info
Washington
Sunday, 2 p.m.
Stanford
Pac-12 Bay Area
By Nick Darrow
April 8, 2022 8:14 p.m.
The Bruins are set to take on four conference foes they have yet to play this season.
No. 3 UCLA beach volleyball (21-2, 3-0 Pac-12) will continue its 2022 conference campaign with four duals at Pac-12 North Invitational in Stanford. The blue and gold will face No. 12 California (19-6, 1-1) and Arizona State (10-12, 2-4) on Saturday, followed by contests against Oregon (8-11, 1-2) and Washington (6-10, 1-4) on Sunday.
The Bruins have yet to take on the Golden Bears, Sun Devils, Ducks or Huskies this season but compiled a 7-0 record against the four programs in 2021.
After playing five nonconference duals against four top-15 opponents at home last week, the Bruins are returning to Pac-12 play, where they are 3-0 on the season after winning all three of their contests in the Pac-12 South Invitational on March 26 and 27.
Following two losses to then-No. 2 TCU on March 31 and April 2, associate head coach Jenny Johnson Jordan said UCLA needs to work on its style of play to get to the next level.
“We just want to continue to be aggressive as a team and come out hard at the very beginning of matches,” Johnson Jordan said.
After UCLA’s second loss to TCU, it rebounded to seal a 3-2 victory over LSU at the UCLA Invitational on April 3. Court four’s pair of freshmen Natalie Myszkowski and Sophie Moore picked up a three-set victory over the Tigers, the duo’s 20th match victory in 22 duals.
Myszkowski said a big part of her and Moore’s success can be credited to their ability to fight back as a team.
“We didn’t start off the way that we finished, and we definitely picked it up in the end and carried it throughout the second and third sets to close out the match,” Myszkowski said. “I am looking forward to the next few matches to improve.”
This weekend’s contests will also mark the first time this season the Bruins will travel to Stanford since the 2019 season after the 2020 Pac-12 North Invitational was canceled because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Moore said she is glad to have another opportunity to take the court.
“We want to stay hungry and hopefully next time pull through,” Moore said. “We are developing more and more of a strategy, so we are going to keep training it and improve that way.”
The Bruins will first take the court at 10 a.m. and 5 p.m. on Saturday and then again on Sunday at 8 a.m. and 2 p.m.
