This post was updated April 2 at 9:24 a.m.
Upsets.
The best teams loathe them. The underdogs love them.
And the Bruins fall into the former.
No. 2 UCLA beach volleyball (18-3) will compete against No. 6 Cal Poly (20-2), No. 1 Stanford (21-2), No. 4 USC (21-4) and No. 10 Long Beach State (18-6) at the Best in the West tournament in Laguna Beach, California, on Friday and Saturday.
The Bruins are coming off a 3-1 showing as of the Texas Invitational last weekend, where they sustained their sole loss to No. 6 Texas. The 3-2 defeat marked an upset – UCLA swept Texas in its previous two matchups, Feb. 19 and March 14, respectively.
“You can come back from anything,” said coach Jenny Johnson Jordan. “They had a lot of fight in them. Even going down, I had full confidence in the team.”
UCLA will likely look to bounce back as it prepares to face several of the nation’s top teams.
Cal Poly’s only two losses this season came against UCLA and USC, respectively.
Erin Inskeep and Ella Connor anchor the Mustangs’ top court and boast a 16-match winning streak. Cal Poly has struggled away from San Luis Obispo, however, holding a 3-2 road record compared to its 17-0 combined tally at home and on neutral courts.
Stanford has similarly recorded just two losses this season and rides a nine-match winning streak. The Bruins and Cardinal split their first two meetings this season, while the former leads the all-time series 26-5.
In their most recent matchup March 7, UCLA’s court five pair of freshman Mallory LaBreche and redshirt junior Kenzie Brower clinched the dual contest with two 21-18 set wins. The Bruins have continued experimenting with lower-court pairings, mixing experience levels and skill sets.
“A lot of things we’ve been doing recently have been working really well,” Jordan said. “We’ve had seasons where that’s happened before, and then we’ve come up short at the end. We are trying to do things a little bit differently this year by mixing things up a little bit more than we have in the past.”
Rivalries often produce the most compelling matchups.
And the UCLA-USC rivalry is no exception.
USC has yet to defeat UCLA this season, falling 3-1 on Feb. 21.
The Trojans are also coming off a loss to the Longhorns at last weekend’s tournament, marking their first road defeat of the season. USC leads the all-time series 29-22 against UCLA – though through the past 10 matchups – the teams are tied 5-5.
UCLA will close the tournament against No. 10 Long Beach State. Long Beach State holds a 7-6 record against ranked opponents this season, including a loss to UCLA on Feb. 28.
Malia Gementera and Taylor Hagenah lead the team on court one with an 18-6 record. In the teams’ previous meeting, Long Beach State fell in straight sets to MPSF Pair of the Year Maggie Boyd and sophomore Sally Perez.
The Bruins could look to boost their uber-competitive approach this weekend, regardless of the competition level.
“Our team mentality is to go out there and give every single team our all,” said redshirt sophomore Kaley Mathews. “Whether we’re playing an unranked team, or whether we’re playing the number two seed – no matter what – we want to give everybody a fair game.”
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