The Secret Life of Walter Mitty inspires its viewers to jump into the unknown and live life without fearing discomfort.
Most athletes and coaches must step out of their comfort zones to succeed in today’s collegiate landscape due to the difficulty in building sustainable chemistry amid roster turnover.
And the Bruins have leapt out of their comfort zones.
UCLA beach volleyball competed at the 2025 AVCA Beach National Championship in Huntsville, Alabama, from Friday to Sunday. Two Bruin pairs – sophomore Alexa Fernandez and junior Cassie Dodd, along with redshirt junior Ensley Alden and freshman Mallory LaBreche – competed at the three-day tournament, with the former capturing second place and the latter tying for 13th.
Each pair had limited experience together heading into the tournament. Fernandez and Dodd played in one tournament together prior to last weekend’s event at the Surf City Collegiate Challenge, but Alden and LaBreche had yet to compete together entirely.
Alden said she and LaBreche learned about their partnership just a week before the competition.
“Last week, we spent time just trying to figure out each other’s vibe and how we could support each other on the court as quick as we possibly could and then use the first day of this tournament to find that groove in competition,” Alden said. “Something that helped us with dealing with pressure was just overcommunicating and making sure that nothing gets unsaid.”
Fernandez and Dodd faced a similar predicament.
The duo captured second place at the Surf City Collegiate Challenge on Oct. 26 in their first outing together to clinch a bid for the national event. They seemingly continued to develop their chemistry in Alabama, boasting a 5-1 record and defeating TCU – the defending national champions – Loyola Marymount and Texas pairs en route to the title match.
Forcing players to branch out and develop relationships with newcomers defines the culture that coach Jenny Johnson Jordan is striving to build in her third season at the helm.
“We switch partners a lot in the fall. People aren’t getting a lot of training time with their partners,” Jordan said. “They (Fernandez and Dodd) played together at Huntington (Beach). Since then, we had switched them around and put them with different people on different days. They do a great job of communicating. They’re like professionals when they prepare to play in terms of scouting, in terms of their warm-up and attention to detail.”
Jordan’s mentality may be a necessary development given UCLA’s new-look roster.
The Bruins ushered in six new players this offseason, including junior transfer Ava Williamson, who said she was nervous joining the Westwood bunch due to the team’s existing camaraderie.
But Williamson realized that Jordan’s squad boasts a unique family-oriented culture that embraces newcomers rather than ostracizing them, a mindset that Alden shares with her coach.
“Having a lot of new people on a team is such a beautiful thing because it keeps us fresh in the way that we have to constantly be ready to play with someone new,” Alden said. “It keeps us sharp on the court to be able to have to refocus and start new with someone or have a new partner every week that we’ve never played with before.”
UCLA’s coaching staff is also instilling a heightened competitive approach in practice before the spring season, in addition to assigning players to courts with unfamiliar teammates.
Dodd said Jordan, along with assistant coaches Kelly Reeves and Theo Brunner, has prioritized building relationships among the athletes that extend beyond the court, farther fueling the Bruins’ desire to compete.
“We’re a super competitive bunch,” Dodd said. “Everything that happens on the court stays on the court, and you come off and you’re all family, and you have each other’s backs, but it’s really been great pushing each other. We have some of the best players in the country, every day you’re competing against them.”
Walter Mitty escaped his monotonous life to step out of his comfort zone and voyage across the world, uncovering his identity in the process.
And the Bruins are embracing new philosophies prior to their 2026 season, venturing into the unknown just like Mitty.
Comments are closed.