This post was updated Dec. 4 at 3:51 p.m.

No. 8 seed UCLA women’s volleyball (18-12, 12-8 Big Ten) returns to the NCAA tournament to face Georgia Tech (16-13, 11-9 ACC) on Thursday after a three-year drought. This appearance will be the first for coach Alfee Reft at the program’s helm. Daily Bruin Sports’ women’s volleyball beat predicts how the Bruins will fare in their tournament return.

Gabriela Garcia
Assistant Sports editor
Prediction: Loss in second round

In August I had hope.

In October I was confused.

And in December, I don’t know what to think.

When coach Reft brought in five new transfers this offseason – three of which came from top-10 ranked squads – I thought I was finally going to witness a dominant Bruin squad.

I was wrong.

Although UCLA has shown flashes of dominance, including its set win to snap Nebraska’s 48-set winning streak, Reft’s team has also shown they can struggle against teams who were vastly easier opponents, dropping matches to five unranked squads this season.

But across their victories, the Bruins have proved to have one thing – grit.

In seven five-set matches this season, UCLA only dropped one against Purdue on Oct. 2. Since then, the team has recorded a perfect record against opponents in the ultimate set. UCLA may have the upper hand if the battle runs long, since Georgia Tech played just three five-set matches this season.

The Bruins will likely challenge the Yellow Jackets, especially if senior outside hitter Cheridyn Leverette continues her regular season dominance. Leverette is averaging 3.83 kills per set and has helped seal squad triumphs all season.

Thriving late in the match will be key to defeating the Yellow Jackets, and I doubt the Bruins will go down quietly in their long-awaited return to the tournament.

If it advances to face No. 2 seed Kentucky – who will likely advance to the second round – UCLA will need to replicate the energy and power it channeled against Nebraska in the third set Nov. 14, a set in which the Bruins notched a near-perfect performance and showed me that what I believed in August could still be true.

But then they sputtered yet again.

And as much as I want to believe that the Bruins can best the Wildcats, I don’t think they will.

Grant Walters
Assistant Sports editor
Prediction: Loss in first round

Character flaws often aren’t fixed overnight.

And Dr. Phil is fully booked.

UCLA women’s volleyball, despite winning four of its last five contests, still flaunts a fundamental crack in its identity – inconsistency.

The Bruins have failed to capture more than two consecutive victories since they mounted a five-game winning streak between Sept. 11 and Sept. 20.

Still, the Westwood bunch thrives in high-pressure situations.

Coach Reft wouldn’t have clinched his first NCAA tournament bid at UCLA’s helm if his squad didn’t capture back-to-back victories against Michigan and Michigan State on the road. UCLA has also gutted out six five-set triumphs this season.

The clutch gene and inconsistency can coexist.

UCLA opened conference play with a statement victory against Penn State, the defending national champion, in the Nittany Lions’ second Big Ten contest.

It then lost back-to-back affairs.

And after besting three conference opponents and stealing a set from a Nebraska team that hadn’t dropped a set in 48 frames, UCLA suffered a straight-set defeat to Washington – a team that notched just a 43% winning clip this season.

But inconsistency has also plagued the Bruins’ first round opponent this year.

Georgia Tech is riding a two-game skid heading into the first round of the NCAA tournament, but it lost to two teams – Stanford and Pittsburgh – that boast AVCA top-five rankings.

Still, the Yellow Jackets have suffered just three losses to unranked squads.

UCLA didn’t earn a top-25 ranking in the latest AVCA poll.

Georgia Tech won the games it was supposed to win this year, unlike UCLA, which dropped five affairs to unranked opponents throughout the season.

The Bruins have sparked hope that their inconsistencies were just growing pains associated with a squad that had five new transfers on its roster.

Yet again and again, they prove that instability is their defining attribute.

And this unshakeable identity will cement UCLA’s fate.

Kai Dizon
Daily Bruin senior staff
Prediction: Loss in first round

Peekaboo.

For better or worse, the 2025 Bruins have always surprised.

UCLA’s loss to Pepperdine? Surprise.

Win over then-No. 15 Penn State? Surprise.

Not getting swept by then-No. 1 Nebraska? You guessed it – surprise.

The Bruins have won matches they had no business winning and have lost matches that should’ve had little drama.

UCLA’s kryptonite has been unassuming middle-of-the-pack Big Ten teams – Indiana, Oregon and Washington all defeated UCLA as unranked squads. And Oregon did it twice.

It’s been a season of, “Now you see me, now you don’t.”

Every upswing has been met with free fall.

That 3-1 win over Penn State was followed with a 3-2 loss against then-No. 13 Purdue in a match in which UCLA, up 2-0, held four match points.

After defeating then-No. 14 Minnesota and then-No. 22 USC, UCLA went 2-3 over its next five matches.

People are going to see a No. 8 seed UCLA and an unranked Georgia Tech and assume the former is in for a cakewalk.

It isn’t.

The Yellow Jackets are 11-9 in the ACC – a conference I would argue is more competitive than the Big Ten this year.

The Big Ten has seven members in the latest AVCA poll to the ACC’s six – but the ACC has four in the top 10. The Big Ten has just two.

While the Big Ten has nine NCAA tournament teams with eight earning a seed and the ACC has just seven and five, respectively – the former only has one No. 1 or No. 2 seed. The ACC has four.

People are going to look ahead and assume No. 2 seed Kentucky will be UCLA’s undoing when the trap door is right under the Bruins’ feet.

Chloe Agas
Daily Bruin staff
Prediction: Loss in second round

I didn’t think they would make it this far.

Yet somehow, after three seasons, UCLA women’s volleyball finally made it into December play.

And if there’s one word to describe coach Reft’s crew this season, it’s perplexing.

Here’s the paradox: How can they excel against the nation’s best, yet end up in five-set marathons against opponents they should have finished in three?

No one would have expected that the team sporting blue and gold would rupture No. 1 Nebraska’s 48-set win streak. But somehow, it’s just as unsurprising that the Bruins still found themselves battling through multiple five-set matches to close out the regular season. And that’s been the story – it’s always one step forward and three steps back.

Even with the stretches that demonstrated their potential, inconsistency remained the one thing they could not solve.

But in a season defined by inconsistency, the Bruins are consistent in one thing – their fight.

Reft’s crew enters the NCAA tournament as underdogs, facing a bracket that hands them no favors. But stepping into the underdog role hasn’t intimidated them in the past, it’s awakened the team everyone thought they were before the season began.

It’s not everyday you rattle the nation’s best.

It’s not everyday you pull off back-to-back five-set battles that have defined your season.

And it’s not everyday a team this confusing makes you believe anyway.

Well, I believe they can make it past the first round. But with a second round matchup against No. 2 seed Kentucky – who have not lost a single match at home this season – UCLA’s hopes of a Cinderella run will end in Lexington, Kentucky.

Sinclair Richman
Daily Bruin contributor
Prediction: Loss in second round

In a season plagued by inconsistency, one thing hasn’t changed – the Bruins will claw their way out of five-set matches.

And when facing Georgia Tech, ranked No. 41 in RPI compared to UCLA at No. 35, this perseverance will come in handy.

The Yellow Jackets are a formidable opponent and the Bruins shouldn’t expect a quick match.

Georgia Tech holds a 3-1 set victory over Purdue, the only team the Bruins dropped a five-set match to, in a reverse sweep. Although, I doubt the Bruins will be concluding their first tournament appearance under coach Reft that quickly – the tenacity to win those five-set matches should propel them to a victory against the Yellow Jackets.

They will jump into the fire to likely face No. 2 seed Kentucky in the second round, though I don’t see the efforts of the Bruins being enough.

On one hand, the Bruins have played some fantastic sets, most notably against the Cornhuskers, in which the team stopped a 48-set win streak in its tracks.

On the other hand, UCLA has gotten swept by teams well below the level of Kentucky, including Oregon and Washington, both of whom didn’t even make the tournament.

In order to take down the Wildcats, the Bruins would have to be firing on all cylinders, but in my opinion, there haven’t been many sets this season where everyone played their best at the same time.

Even at their peak, the Bruins have not performed at a level that gives me confidence to say they will make it through, no matter how much I love an underdog story.