Many people quit before they fulfill challenging aspirations.
Only those who embrace challenges will accomplish their goals and receive praise.
No. 8 seed UCLA women’s volleyball (18-12, 12-8 Big Ten) faced substantial adversity throughout its 2025 regular season campaign, but the squad clinched its first postseason bid in coach Alfee Reft’s Westwood tenure. UCLA will face Georgia Tech (16-13, 11-9 ACC) at the Historic Memorial Coliseum in Lexington, Kentucky, on Thursday afternoon in the first round of the NCAA tournament.
UCLA’s straight-set loss to Washington on Nov. 22 jeopardized its tournament hopes, but Reft’s squad gutted out a pair of consecutive five-set victories against Michigan and Michigan State, respectively, to secure a tournament draw.
The Bruins dropped their second and third sets to the Wolverines but rallied to earn two straight stanza triumphs, achieving the match victory. They also squandered a chance to garner a four-set win against the Spartans but responded in the fifth set to leave East Lansing victorious.
“I’m proud of our fight, our ability to find ways against teams, and it seems like we’re doing a pretty good job closing out fifth sets,” Reft said.
Reft’s group played in seven five-stanza affairs during the regular season and won six of these contests. The bunch rides a four-game winning streak in such matchups heading into Thursday’s bout.
But rather than dread these strenuous matches, Bruins like sophomore libero Lola Schumacher embrace them.
“We’re in for the climb,” Schumacher said. “One of the things in our mission statement is … about how we are built for the climb, and how these hard matches … only make us better.”
Although Schumacher’s philosophy reflected her team’s late-season surge, it also characterized the Bruins’ entire season.
The Bruins acquired five new transfers prior to Reft’s third year as head honcho, which elicited high expectations.
But UCLA lost three of its first four games, which included a defeat at the hands of Pepperdine on Sept. 2.
The Westwood crew then accumulated five consecutive triumphs – its longest winning streak in 2025 – a stretch that spanned across the Sun City Classic and the Stanford Tournament.
And UCLA mustered back-to-back victories against top-25 squads in then-No. 14 Minnesota and then-No. 22 USC, respectively, after dropping two straight contests in early October.
Challenges weren’t just relegated to team performance, either.
Two of the Bruins’ incoming veteran transfers – graduate students setter Zayna Meyer and middle blocker Phekran Kong – were hampered by injuries throughout the 2025 slate, which limited their contributions on the court.
But others stepped up.
Sophomore setter Kate Duffey, who occupied a depth role in 2024, earned the starting spot and recorded the eighth-most assists per set out of qualified Big Ten setters with 9.64 per frame.
Redshirt junior middle blocker Marianna Singletary stifled opposing attacks and spearheaded the middle unit while Kong recovered from her injury. The Texas transfer notched 1.29 blocks per set, tied for fifth most in the conference.
The Bruins never quit, regardless of the circumstances.
“We’ve proven to ourselves throughout this whole season [that] we can do hard things,” Schumacher said. “Nothing can phase us. … Our level of volleyball is always going to be the same.”
And toughness may represent a glaring weakness for the Bruins’ Thursday opponent, which could allow the Bruins to rely on their gritty identity that adversity helped forge.
Georgia Tech recorded one ranked victory and suffered 10 defeats against top-25 teams this year. The Atlanta squad also competed in just three five-set affairs in 2025.
The Yellow Jackets captured only one set across their last seven frames, entering the first round of the NCAA tournament riding back-to-back losses to No. 5 Stanford and No. 4 Pittsburgh, respectively.
But Georgia Tech boasts tournament experience – the program clinched its sixth consecutive tournament bid Sunday – while UCLA lacks the same championship pedigree, given that this year’s squad earned the program’s first national draw since 2021.
Still, the Bruins appear poised to build off a strong conference season conclusion to kickstart their postseason campaign.
But UCLA is also prioritizing its recovery after an unrelenting Big Ten season to prepare mentally and physically for tournament obstacles.
“Using that momentum is really big, but [we’re] also taking a big reset,” said freshman outside hitter Eliana Urzua. “We had a really long trip. … Taking the win will give us a lot of momentum going into the next game.”
Comments are closed.