Ruby Sorra (left, in the photo on the left) and Brooke Rockwell won a three-set slugfest at the 2s to clinch Stanford’s semifinal victory Saturday over Florida State. The 5s pair of Naperville’s Kenzie Brower (15 in the photo on the right) and Mallory LaBreche tallied the winning point in UCLA’s down-to-wire battle against Texas. (Photos courtesy of Stanford and UCLA athletics)
UCLA and Stanford were the only teams to hold down No. 1 in the AVCA beach-volleyball coaches poll during the 2026 season. The Bruins were voted to the top spot in six weeks and the Cardinal in four. Neither was ranked lower than No. 2.
Isn’t it fitting, then, that these long-time rivals in the defunct Pac-12 emerged from two days of single-elimination competition during the NCAA beach championships in soggy and windy Gulf Shores, Alabama, as the final two?
Top-seeded Stanford (39-4) was the first to qualify for Sunday’s national title-dual, gritting out a 3-1 victory in the semifinals Saturday afternoon over fifth-seeded Florida State (35-3). The dual was decided by a razor-thin margin, with all three of the matches in the second wave going to tiebreakers after the teams had split the two first-wave contests. The Cardinal got points at the 3s and 4s before juniors Brooke Rockwell and Ruby Sorra notched the clincher at the 2s in a 29-27, 19-21, 15-10 nail-biter over 6-foot-4 sophomore Gella Andrew and redshirt senior Maddie Trusty.
FSU’s match victory came courtesy of its superstar top pair of 6-foot-3 grad athlete Audrey Koenig and senior Alexis Durish, who swept sophomore Avery Jackson and senior Kelly Belardi 17 and 17 to finish their collegiate season 32-0 as the only undefeated duo in the country. Koenig and Durish were tabbed among the four finalists for the AVCA’s national beach player of the year award.
Stanford will play for an NCAA title on the sand for the first time. In five previous trips to the NCAA beach tournament, the Cardinal had not advanced beyond the quarterfinals. (Graphic courtesy of Stanford athletics)
In a vivid demonstration of why NCAA beach volleyball in the dual-meet format truly is a team sport, third-seeded UCLA (33-6) got the clinching point of a 3-2 victory over Texas (28-7) in the national semifinals from its 5s pair.
The Bruins had to sweat out a marathon second set that ended when a nifty soft poke shot by freshman Mallory LaBreche nestled into the sand on the eighth possible-dual point. LaBreche and redshirt junior Kenzie Brower (a product of Naperville Central in the southwest Chicago suburbs) topped redshirt junior Macey Butler and grad athlete Karin Zolnercikova 21-15 28-26.
UCLA essentially advanced on the strength of its depth, also receiving points from its 3s and 4s pairs. Texas took the top two courts, with its 1s duo of sophomore Brecht Piersma (a Dutch national) and Austin native Katie Hashman (a redshirt senior) winning 19 and 19 over 6-foot-3 sophomore Sally Perez and AVCA national beach player of the year Maggie Boyd, the seventh beach athlete in history to be named a four-time first-team AVCA All-American.
UCLA reversed the script on Texas, which had bounced the Bruins 3-2 in MPSF conference tournament title dual and in five previous meetings during the 2026 season had won three of them. The second-seeded Longhorns carried a 15-dual winning streak into the semifinal.
Stanford and UCLA were picked as at-large entries to the 16-team NCAA tournament bracket and have split four duals in 2026. The Cardinal prevailed 3-2 during the season-opening Outrigger Duke Kahanamoku Classic in Honolulu, the Bruins took a 4-1 victory in the MPSF Midseason Rumble, Stanford gained another 3-2 triumph in the Best in the West event and UCLA won 3-1 late in the double-elimination MPSF conference tournament.
The UCLA Bruins sport two NCAA beach titles (2018 and ’19) on their gaudy resume and were runners-up in 2021, ’23 and ’24. (Graphic courtesy of UCLA athletics)
In the quarterfinal round that commenced Saturday morning on fast-track white sand drenched by several rainstorms, Texas eliminated 2025 NCAA runner-up Loyola Marymount (30-11), seeded seventh, and UCLA handled sixth-seeded Big West tournament champion Cal Poly (31-9), both by 3-1 counts. Stanford posted their “W’s” during their quarterfinals dual against eighth-seeded NorCal rival California (24-14) at 2s, 3s and 5s. Florida State scored a mild seeded upset over 4 seed USC (29-12). FSU won at the 3s and 5s before scoring the clincher in a three-set marquee matchup at the 1s. Durish and Koenig rallied to top decorated junior Zoey Henson and freshman sensation Sarah Wood 19-21, 21-14, 15-13, keeping their unbeaten record intact.
The Stanford-UCLA title dual of the NCAA beach championships on Sunday will be televised on the flagship ESPN channel (12:30 p.m. Eastern) and piggybacked on subscription streamer ESPN+. Last season’s NCAA final between TCU and Loyola Marymount drew a total-average viewership of 220,000 on ESPN in a late-morning window.
The weather forecast for Gulf Shores on Sunday afternoon calls for sunny skies, temperatures in the low-70s, a minimal threat of rain and winds 5-6 mph.
(Graphic courtesy of AVCA)
UCLA senior Maggie Boyd became the seventh four-time first-team beach All-American honored by the AVCA, and the only one on the 2026 A-A squads named by the coaches group. Boyd also was honored as the AVCA national beach player of the year.
Seniors Malia Gementara and Taylor Hagenah of Long Beach State and Cal Poly redshirt senior Ella Connor were selected as first-team All-Americans for the third time.
The AVCA named Stein Metzger of Texas as coach of the year and Stanford’s Billy Allen as assistant coach of the year. Metzger is the first coach to win the award three times, also being tabbed in 2017 and ’18 while at the helm at UCLA.
(Graphic courtesy of AVCA)
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