UCLA Beach Volleyball Seeks Third NCAA Championship Today
The Bruins will look for their first title since 2019 when they face Stanford this morning.
The two schools with the most NCAA titles will square off this morning with a national championship on the line.
The Bruins will be seeking UCLA’s 127th NCAA title while the Cardinal is looking for Stanford’s 139th NCAA title. This will be the first time UCLA and Stanford have met for an NCAA title since the women’s golf teams met in 2024 with a national championship on the line.
Of course, a UCLA win would cut Stanford’s lead to just 11 titles while a Cardinal win would increase their lead to 13 titles.
Last Time Out
Yesterday, the Bruins faced the Cal Poly Mustangs in the second round. UCLA won the first set on three of the five courts. On Court 2, Cal Poly’s Izzy Martinez and Logan Walter defeated UCLA’s Kaley Mathews and Ensley Alde, 21-12. On Court 4, UCLA’s Ava Williamson and Jesse Dueck dropped their first set, 17-21.
The Bruins scored the first point of the dual when Sally Perez and Maggie Boyd beat Ella Connor and Erin Inskeep, 21-18, 21-12.
Cal Poly tied the match, 1-1, when Martinez and Walter took the second set from Mathews and Alde, 21-17.
Court 5 was where Kenzie Brower and Mallory LaBreche dispatched Peyton Dueck and Katie Clevenger, 22-20, 23-21, to give the Bruins the lead. Meanwhile, Alexa Fernandez and Harper Cooper took care of business against Quinn Perry and Ashleigh Adams, 21-19, 21-19, to complete the Bruin victory.
That sent UCLA to the semifinals against Texas yesterday afternoon. Of course, the Longhorns are coached by former Bruin head coach Stein Metzger, who led UCLA to the team’s two national titles.
Against the Longhorns, the Bruins jumped out to a 2-0 lead when Williamson and Jesse Dueck swept Chloe Charles and Eva Lisa Kuivonen, 21-17, 21-19, on Court 4 and Fernandez and Cooper beat Emma Grace Robertson and Lily Davis, 21-12, 21-14, on Court 3.
With their backs to the wall, the Longhorns mounted a comeback. Brecht Piersma and Katie Hashman swept Perez and Boyd, 21-19, 21-19 on Court 1. On Court 2, sisters Anna Pavelkova and Kacka Pavelkova needed three sets to beat Mathews and Alden, 21-15, 17-21, 15-9, to tie the dual at 2-2.
That meant that the Bruins would need to win on Court 5 to advance to their fifth national championship dual. Well, Brower and LaBreche took the first set relatively easily, 21-15. But the number two seed wasn’t going down that easily.
The second set was the set which didn’t want to end, going an extra 12 points as neither pair could get to the two-point margin needed to win. Finally, Brower and LeBreche got there to finish off Macey Butler and Karin Zolnercikova, 28-26, in set two to send the Bruins onto today’s national championship dual against the Stanford Cardinal.
Stanford Cardinal
While the Cardinal may have moved to the ACC for most sports, Stanford remains an MPSF foe for Beach Volleyball. This season, the Bruins and the Cardinal split four meetings with each team winning twice. So, it seems fitting that the national championship will serve as the rubber match for the two MPSF teams with the best overall records.
On Friday, the Cardinal swept Chattanooga, 3-0. Yesterday, they beat rival UC Berkeley, 3-1, in the second round to advance to the national semifinals against fifth-seeded Florida State. Stanford topped the Seminoles, 3-1, in that dual to move on to today’s championship dual.
This will be the first appearance in a national championship dual for the Cardinal and head coach Andrew Fuller, who is in his tenth season leading Stanford.
NCAA Beach Volleyball National Championship
Teams: #3 seed UCLA Bruins (33-6) vs. #1 seed Stanford Cardinal (39-4)
Time: Sunday, May 4, 2026, 9:30 am PT
Where: Gulf Beach Place, Gulf Shores, AL
TV: ESPN
Live Stream: WatchESPN.com and the ESPN app
Go Bruins!!! Bring home NC #127!!!
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