Entering the national stage is a tricky feeling.

Each of the eight teams is three wins removed from the highest collegiate honor in the sport.

Success under the bright lights of Walter Pyramid has driven student-athletes to practice, compete and play their hearts out.

No. 1 seed UCLA men’s volleyball (23-5, 11-1 MPSF) will face No. 8 seed Fort Valley State (17-8, 10-0 SIAC) on Tuesday at Walter Pyramid, beginning its NCAA tournament campaign with a different weight on its shoulders from its past two trips.

“We’re excited to be in the tournament, have a chance to compete for the national championship,” coach John Speraw said.

Gaining an at-large bid in 2022, the team began an uphill battle on a stage few members had seen before. The young squad was raw and inexperienced, bowing out in a five-set semifinal to Long Beach State.

Dominance characterized arguably the Bruins’ best season since the turn of the century in 2023 as the national championship squad was driven by a poster of the point that lost them the title the year prior. Nevertheless, they were still underdogs to a top-ranked Hawai’i squad.

Now, the reigning national champions are already sitting atop a peak as they face the tournament’s lowest-seeded team, the Wildcats, who prove an antithesis to the experienced Bruin squad.

After the Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Conference gained an automatic bid in 2024 to solidify an eight-team playoff bracket, Fort Valley State breezed through conference play undefeated before a clean run through the SIAC tournament to clinch a slot.

“We’re a very confident team,” said Jaxon Hicks, a Fort Valley State outside hitter, in an interview with Off the Block. “We truly believe in our skills and trust in the work that we put in, and we just had a feeling that this was going to be our season that we could make history.”

The teams faced off earlier in the season, with the Bruins taking the victory in a sweep at Pauley Pavilion. UCLA dominated in every statistical category, hitting at a .427 clip while holding Fort Valley State to a .136 percentage.

Neither squad has a chip on its shoulder or a rivalry with the other – Hicks said his team’s goal was to make history by stepping out onto the national stage, and redshirt senior outside hitter Alex Knight said it’s time for the Bruins to take down the poster that lit a fire under them through the last season.

Knight added that the team is focused on taking the tournament one step at a time.

“We’re super excited to get going,” Knight said. “We’re super excited to get over to Long Beach and get training on the court, and so all our focus is on Fort Valley right now and trying to game plan on how we’re going to get past them in the first round.”

UCLA enters the tournament on a loss, but with three First Team All-Americans and two new All-America honorable mentions following Monday’s announcement. Nevertheless, Speraw’s squad was able to snag the top seed because of a mix of strength of schedule and RPI – two metrics that pushed it into national contention the year prior.

While the Bruins tout a top-five standing in four statistical categories, the Wildcats outpace them in digs, coming in at No. 4 nationally. Outside hitter Isaiah Fedd – a standout on the squad that didn’t play the last time the two teams met up – also leads the nation in service aces.

“It’s about the energy we can bring,” Speraw said. “We just have to go out there and compete with our best energy and be as focused as we can on just tactical execution.”