NCAA beach volleyball: UCLA, USC roll on; Cal Poly continues its resurgence

The second weekend of the NCAA beach volleyball season was far less elucidating than a tumultuous opening go-round, but some clarity nonetheless emerged.

After going 4-3 in Hawaii, but winning the championship-bracket duals that counted the most, UCLA (8-4) solidified its standing by taking down ranked opponents Cal, Long Beach State, Washington and Cal Poly on its home sand at Mapes Beach during the massive Battle for Los Angeles.

Remaining at No. 1 in the latest weekly AVCA coaches poll released Tuesday, the Bruins won 17 of the 20 matches. Their top duo of All-Americans Maggie Boyd and Lexy Denaburg got back on track with four victories, earning them the AVCA national and Pac-12 pair of the week awards.

No. 3 USC (8-2), competing on campus at Merle Norman Stadium, blanked Long Beach State, Grand Canyon and Division-II Concordia-Irvine, but got a tussle from Cal Poly during a 3-2 victory in which three of the five matches went to the tiebreaker.

Coach Dain Blanton tinkered with the three-time defending national champion Women of Troy’s lineup on the lower courts, but All-Americans Megan Kraft and Delaynie Maple swept their four matches at the 1s by a dominating margin of 168-109.

The only host school to hit a speedbump during the Battle for LA was sixth-ranked Loyola Marymount (5-4), playing on its new campus courts. The Lions handled Washington, Grand Canyon and Concordia, but were clawed 4-1 by the Cal Bears, with all but top pair Valma Prihti and Michelle Shaffer (7-2 on the season, losing only to Kraft-Maple) going down to defeat. Prihti and Schaffer were tabbed by the West Coast Conference as its pair of the week.

What was made clear during the big shindig in Southern California was that Coach Todd Rogers has his Cal Poly program pointed in a winning direction again after an uncharacteristic 15-25 record in 2023.

The Mustangs (6-2) knocked off top-15 teams in Cal (by a 3-2 score) and Grand Canyon (winning on four out of five courts), suffered the aforementioned 3-2 defeat to USC and took a match against UCLA, all of which moved them from No. 18 to No. 11 on the AVCA list.

A return to SoCal sand seemingly lit a fire under UCLA transfer Lindsey Sparks, a key contributor on hugely successful Bruins teams (including an NCAA champion in 2019 and national runner-up in 2021) who had not competed since the ‘21 season. The 24-year-old Sparks went 3-1 on the weekend on Court 3, including a sweep of UCLA’s Jaden Whitmarsh-Tessa Van Winkle and a three-set loss to USC’s Grace Seits-Maddi Kriz. Sparks and partner Quinn Perry were honored as the Big West Conference’s pair of the week.

Cal Poly assistant coach Angela Rock told VBM that Sparks was “a critical addition to the team,” who has brought “maturity, leadership and fantastic skills” to the program.

“It’s great for the other women to play alongside someone who has won a championship,” added Rock, who played for the USA indoor Olympic team in the 1988 Seoul Summer Games and is an all-time American women’s pro-beach great. “Lindsey believes in our team and the hard work everyone is putting in to get to” Gulf Shores, Alabama, site of the NCAA Beach Championships during the first week of May.

The big loser among the eight ranked teams in the Battle for L.A. was Grand Canyon (4-4), which took the collar in four duals and dropped to No.17. No. 7 California (6-2) went 2-2, its loss to Cal Poly mitigated by a “W” over LMU. No. 9 Long Beach State (4-2) also broke even in four duals. Washington (3-5), ranked 14th, went 1-3.

Around the nation

Validating its lofty national ranking with perhaps the most significant single result of the second weekend was No. 2 Stanford (7-1), which eked out a 3-2 victory over No. 5 TCU (7-1) in wet and windy conditions during its elements-challenged Battle of the Bay in Palo Alto, California.

The Cardinal’s 5s team of Maya Harvey and freshman Clara Stowell scored the clinching point with a 21-11, 21-18 triumph over Morgan Williams and Keagan Polk. The Horned Frogs’ top pair of Hailey Hamlett and Anhil Khmil improved to 8-0, which included a three-set victory over Stanford’s Brooke Rockwell and Xolani Hodel.

Coach Brooke Niles’ deep Florida State squad has offered tantalizing glimpses of its potential in winning all seven of its duals while going 34-1 in matches. The fourth-ranked Seminoles have been forced to shuffle their lineup without two-time AVCA All-American Paige Kalkhoff, who is injured and out for the season but will return next year, Niles told Volleyball Magazine.

On home sand in the Seminole Beach Bash last weekend. FSU plowed under three ranked teams – No. 16 Georgia State (5-3), No. 18 Stetson (6-2) and No. 20 Tampa (5-5 after victories over Eckerd and host Florida Gulf Coast on Tuesday).

“Basically, we have gotten solid performances from everyone,” Niles said. “We have been able to play a lot of people and we have a lot of depth.”

Bouncing between the 1s and 2s, “Raelyn White and Audrey Koenig have played really well. Raelyn is full-time defending after full-time blocking or split blocking most of her time at FSU,” Niles added. “Also, Skyler Germann and Maddie Anderson have done well together and with other partners.”

The Seminoles will have to wait a couple of weeks until their first tests against other prime national-title contenders, that coming in the East Meets West Invitational (March 15-16) on fabled Manhattan Beach with duals against UCLA and Loyola Marymount.

No. 8 LSU (8-1) were 5-0 fat cats in its Tiger Beach Bash, the only close call coming in a 3-2 victory over Tulane (8-2). Reilly Allred and Parker Bracken are 8-0 on Court 2 for the Bayou Bengals, who are off this weekend. Texas A&M-Corpus Christi (7-2) enjoyed a solid event in Baton Rouge, winning four out of five and falling only to LSU 4-1. North Alabama (5-3) went 2-2.

Arizona (7-0), ranked 19th, won its three duals in the Malibu Classic, but was stretched to 3-2 results by host Pepperdine (2-3) and Boise State (7-3), which finished 3-1. The Broncos’ top team of Marlayna Bullington and Sierra Land were undefeated and collected pair-of-the-week honors from the Southland Conference.

Click here for the AVCA coaches poll.

Week 3 schedule

More questions figure to be answered this weekend in the Pac-12 South Invitational in Tempe, Arizona, on Friday, Saturday and Saturday. The event features all nine conference members, but it’s not a true round-robin.

UCLA’s itinerary of four duals includes No. 10 Arizona State (6-0) and Stanford, which will play California and the host Sun Devils. USC’s toughest tests likely will come against Arizona and Washington.

A bevy of solid programs will gather for the Beach Invitational on Saturday and Sunday at Long Beach City College in California: Loyola Marymount, host Long Beach State, No. 13 Florida International (9-0), Stetson, Santa Clara and Southern Mississippi.

No. 12 Hawaii looks to collect some victories after on 0-5 start during its second tournament, the Queen’s Cup, that will run Thursday through Saturday. A seeded championship bracket will be contested on the final day based on round-robin results. The field on iconic Queen’s Beach in Honolulu includes the Rainbow Wahine, Boise State, Saint Mary’s, Pepperdine, Nebraska and Chaminade.

The season’s second Tampa Invitational on Friday and Saturday features Florida State, Florida Gulf Coast (7-3), Coastal Carolina (4-4), Houston Christian and the host Spartans.

In the Horned Frog Challenge in Fort Worth, Texas, on Friday and Saturday, TCU will welcome Tulane, Texas A&M-Corpus Christi, UC Davis, Stephen F. Austin and Alabama-Birmingham.

After going 4-0 in its Wheeler Beach Bash last weekend, South Carolina (4-4) will again play the host. The Gamecocks will be joined in their Carolina Challenge in Columbia on Saturday and Sunday by North Florida, New Orleans, Tennessee Tech and Eastern Kentucky.

On Wednesday in Atlanta, the Georgia State Day of Duels will feature the host Sandy Panthers, No. 15 Florida Atlantic (6-2), Mercer and Austin Peay.

Eckerd College will hold its Battle on the Bay on Friday and Saturday in St. Petersburg, Florida. The D-II Tritons will welcome Missouri State (9-0, venturing away from its Ozark home sand for the first time), Jacksonville, D-II Palm Beach Atlantic and D-II Saint Leo.

The North Alabama Invitational in Florence on Friday and Saturday includes the host Lions, Austin Peay, Jacksonville State and Carson Newman.