UCLA women’s volleyball is set to kick off its 2026 campaign with exhibition play starting Thursday and a packed preseason ahead of the official regular season beginning Sept. 24 against Indiana. With a new coaching staff at the helm of the program, the combination of returners, transfers and incoming freshmen will help first-year head coach Matt Werle make his Big Ten debut. Daily Bruin assistant Sports editor Kate Bergfeld previews the Bruins’ 2026 roster ahead of the season’s start.
2025 record: 19-13, 12-8 Big Ten
Coach: Matt Werle
The Bruins may have had a less-than-stellar 2025 record, but there were some highlights.
UCLA received a bid to the NCAA tournament, where it won its first game against Georgia Tech 3-2 before falling to No. 1 seed Kentucky 3-1.
Having found luck in the transfer portal the previous offseason, a new Bruin squad came together for a strong stand against then-No.1 Nebraska at home.
Setting a home attendance record of 10,498 fans, the Bruin faithful watched the squad take the third set from a historical powerhouse, snapping the Huskers’ streak of 15 straight sweeps and 48 consecutive set wins. Though the Bruins ultimately lost 3-1, the fight demonstrated they could be contenders.
As Werle takes the helm in 2026, the Bruins have a new opportunity to make a mark in the Big Ten.
Returners
The Bruins retained their core from last season.
Fifth-year middle blocker Marianna Singletary and senior outside hitter Maggie Li spearhead the returning offense.
Singletary began her collegiate career at Texas before transferring to UCLA for the 2025 season, where she received First Team All-Big Ten and First Team AVCA All-Pacific Region honors. Across her 32 matches, she hit at a .322 clip alongside 159 blocks. Singletary tallied 398 points in 2025, including back-to-back double-digit kill performances in the Bruins’ two NCAA tournament games.
Li, who played her first two seasons at California, appeared in 75 sets in her debut season at UCLA. She registered 191 kills, 121 digs and 20 blocks in 2025.
Defensively, junior libero/defensive specialist Lola Schumacher will continue her career at UCLA after a freshman season with Wisconsin. She, alongside Singletary, was named to the Preseason All-Big Ten Team on July 30.
As UCLA’s starting libero, Schumacher received 2025 First Team All-Big Ten and First Team AVCA All-Pacific Region honors. She led the Big Ten in digs per set at 4.38 and total digs with 495. Across 113 sets, she anchored serve reception at a .946 clip on 354 serve-receive attempts.
In the NCAA tournament, Schumacher recorded 21 digs in the opening round and 20 in the following. In addition, she totaled 12 aces and 115 assists throughout her 29 matches.
The Bruins also retained senior defensive specialist/libero Kat Lutz. Lutz appeared in all 32 matches in the 2025 campaign, aiding Schumacher in the back row with a serve-receive percentage of .951 and a total of 214 digs, averaging 1.8 per set.
Junior setter Kate Duffey, who received the 2025 Big Ten Sportsmanship Award, is the final core returner. Directing the Bruin offense in the 2025 campaign, she tallied 1,097 assists alongside 245 digs, 32 kills and 57 blocks.
Freshmen
The Bruins are adding depth to their defense.
Incoming defensive specialist/libero Presley Thompson is the No. 8 libero in California and the No. 36 libero/defensive specialist in the nation, according to Prep Dig. Across three varsity seasons at La Costa Canyon High School, she tallied 122 assists and 933 digs, averaging 3.5 per set.
Thompson competed for WAVE Volleyball Club in San Diego, which produced Abby Van Winkle and Adelina Okazaki, two elite beach volleyball athletes who also played for UCLA.
A pair of offensive threats will also join the Bruins in their collegiate debuts – middle blocker Brooke Harwood and outside hitter Ashton Nelson.
Harwood – the No. 20 middle blocker in the nation, according to Prep Dig, averaged four kills per set across a four-year varsity high school career. She totaled 1,447 kills in her career, with a breakout sophomore season featuring 541 kills on a .338 clip. Harwood was also a member of the USA U19 women’s volleyball team.
The last member of the incoming class is setter Vivian Hickman, who was the primary setter for both her high school team and her club team, AZ Sky. She finished her varsity career with 1,866 assists and 700 digs across three years.
The four incoming freshmen will bolster the program after the departure of three graduates and four transfers.
Transfers
UCLA has consistently found success within the transfer portal.
And this year was no different.
Sophomore outside hitter Ava Utterback and junior setter Ava Sarafa join the Bruins after stints at Louisville and Kentucky, respectively.
Utterback was a top-five national player for Prep Dig Indiana and was named the most complete outside hitter in the class of 2024 by PrepVolleyball. She redshirted the 2024 season at Louisville before totaling 40.5 points across 47 sets in 2025.
Sarafa also redshirted her first year at Kentucky before playing in 2024 as a serving specialist and then spending the 2025 campaign as a primary setter.
A star in her home state of Michigan, Sarafa led her high school team to three consecutive state championships as the starting setter in the state’s largest high school division. In 2022, she was Michigan Player of the Year, a First Team All-American and the Andi Collins Award winner – the honor given to the country’s most outstanding setter. Sarafa was also the No. 1 high school setter and No. 2 overall player in Michigan.
At Kentucky, she posted a season-best 43 assists and 10 digs across five sets against Nebraska on Aug. 31. A threat defensively, she had a handful of multiblock matches and standout defensive plays.
The Bruins’ final transfer is sophomore middle blocker Jordyn Johnson, who spent her first collegiate season at UC Santa Barbara and earned an All-Big West Honorable Mention. At DeLaSalle High School, she set school records for blocks in a single game, kills in a single game, career blocks and career kills.
At UCSB, Johnson notched a career-high 11 kills against Cal Poly on Nov. 13 and a career-high seven blocks against UC Irvine on Oct. 18.
With a new coach and new talent, the Bruins’ ability to adjust should be key for them to make a strong run in the Big Ten and beyond.
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