A Big Ten team has appeared in eight women’s volleyball national championships since 2013.

Now, UCLA women’s volleyball calls that conference home.

The Bruins took to the Big Ten Network Studios in Chicago for the 2024 Big Ten Volleyball Media Days on Tuesday – four days after officially joining the conference.

“The competition in the Big Ten speaks for itself. … When you are a young athlete, you picture yourself playing at Nebraska. Purdue gets packed, Wisconsin,” said associate head coach Amir Lugo-Rodriguez. “We’re excited to walk into those places and compete and show everyone what UCLA volleyball is all about.”

After a middling 2023 campaign where the Bruins finished 10-10 in Pac-12 play and missed the NCAA tournament for the second consecutive season, they were picked to finish eighth of 18 in the Big Ten preseason coaches’ poll.

However, Lugo-Rodriguez said the Bruins have postseason aspirations this year and are maintaining a one-game-at-a-time approach.

“The first step is just attacking our preseason because we have a really good schedule,” said rising graduate student setter Audrey Pak. “Then building off of that as we move into conference.”

UCLA’s season kicks off Aug. 30 with the GT Invitational, where it will play Georgia Tech and Coastal Carolina in Atlanta before continuing its nonconference slate against Power-Four teams including Tennessee, TCU and California.

On Sept. 27, UCLA will begin conference play as visitors against Nebraska, which managed a 33-2 record and a national championship appearance in 2023.

“Nebraska is a great opponent,” said rising graduate student middle blocker Anna Dodson, a preseason all-conference honoree. “We’re really looking forward to playing there, especially with our first Big Ten game. But truly, we take every game and treat it the same.”

Pak added that she sees the match against the Cornhuskers as a test of the Bruins’ preseason training and personally looks forward to the volleyball culture of Lincoln, Nebraska.

Dodson and Pak are two of the Bruins’ three returning rising graduate students and two of 12 returning players overall. The veteran duo also features the only Bruins who played on the 2021 team: the last group to reach postseason play.

“It’s been such an honor to be at UCLA for going on six years. I truly wouldn’t want to be anywhere else,” Dodson said. “We have the best coaching staff in the nation. We are working our butts off every day and we’re going to make a big statement.”

Lugo-Rodriguez said UCLA will bring a creative, dynamic and fierce style of play with an international flare – something he attributes to UCLA head coach Alfee Reft, who the associate head coach called one of the best coaches in the world.

Similarly, USC coach Brad Keller and outside hitter Ally Batenhorst promised to bring an innovative, pass-heavy, “West Coast” style of play to their transition to the Big Ten.

Overall, UCLA’s opponents overwhelmingly said they were excited for the conference’s expansion, even if it means slightly longer plane rides. Both Wisconsin coach Kelly Sheffield and Purdue coach Dave Shondell said they look forward to playing at Pauley Pavilion, with the former never having been to Westwood.

“This conference continues to rise,” Lugo-Rodriguez said. “Hopefully the end product will be how we trained all this summer, how we trained leading into the preseason and good things will happen.”