There’s no way around it.

One mid-major opponent had the Bruins on the ropes Monday and another defeated them in four sets the following day.

And now, No. 19 UCLA women’s volleyball (1-1) will face its first Power Four and ranked opponent when it takes on No. 24 TCU (1-1) in a two-match series at the Schollmaier Arena in Fort Worth, Texas, beginning Friday and concluding Saturday.

“We really just have to work on our identity,” said redshirt junior middle blocker Marianna Singletary, one of 10 new players to the Bruins’ 18-person roster. “It’s really about jelling on the court right now and finding our fight, finding our fire and finding what we want this team to be about.”

While both teams have identical records, the Horned Frogs and Bruins are hardly coming in on similar notes.

TCU lost in four sets to then-No. 3 Pittsburgh on Sunday before taking down the reigning national champions, No. 5 Penn State, in five frames Monday.

While the Bruins’ slow start is certainly not a death sentence, early-season results could hamper a team looking to make its first NCAA tournament in three years.

And UCLA will likely need to split or sweep TCU if it wants to keep its spot on the AVCA poll.

“We’ve got to grow,” coach Alfee Reft said. “Certainly our offense … and our ability to score when we’re in the service game.”

Two matches in, the Bruins’ .240 hitting percentage leaves something to be desired, particularly given last year’s .247 mark with a worse roster on paper.

Plus, UCLA’s current service aces to set ratio and digs to set ratio of 0.44 and 12.22 are below last year’s marks of 1.15 and 13.88, respectively.

“We know what we’re capable of and we didn’t put that on the court the whole time,” graduate student setter Zayna Meyer said. “We just have so many great pieces that are going to come together as the season goes on.”

And while the sample size is especially small – and UCLA’s roster, as Reft and his players have said, is still learning to play alongside each other – it may be difficult for the team to perform better against tougher competition less than a week after a mixed season-opening weekend.

“Going back to basics is going to be huge,” Singletary said. “Pepperdine tonight (Tuesday) and then Long Beach (State), we’ve gone down in the first set.”

On the bright side, senior outside hitter Cheridyn Leverette seems to have picked up right where she left off after her breakout 2024 campaign, currently boasting 18 digs and two aces with a team-leading 34 kills on a .304 hitting percentage.

Meanwhile, Texas transfer Singletary and California transfer junior outside hitter Maggie Li have lit up the stat sheet. The former has posted 18 kills on a team-best .350 clip and 15 blocks, and the latter with 23 kills despite playing in just seven of this season’s nine sets. However, Li’s .203 hitting percentage and five service errors look like areas for improvement.

TCU boasts three players with 20-plus kills in outside hitters Evan Hendrix, Jalyn Gibson and Becca Kelley. But just Gibson – the only Horned Frog to make the preseason all-conference team – has a hitting percentage above .140 with her mark of .294.

Additionally, TCU has outserved UCLA thus far with an ace-to-error ratio of 19-to-23 compared to the latter’s 4-to-26.

UCLA does not play another Power Four team until it faces Stanford on Sept. 21 in its final nonconference regular-season match, suggesting it could take a while before the Bruins’ RPI and national ranking recover, given a poor performance in Fort Worth.

“It’s up to us,” Meyer said. “Bringing all that energy every single day in training and then translating that into matches is going to be the most important thing.”

The first match between the Bruins and Horned Frogs begins Friday at 4 p.m., with match two commencing Saturday at 4:30 p.m.