No. 2 Bruins Travel to San Luis Obispo for Center of Effort Challenge

Friday, April 10

San Luis Obispo, Calif.

4:15 PM (PT)

UCLA

California

Sally Perez leads UCLA with 23 victories in 2026

Photo by: Aaron Fang

No. 2 Bruins Travel to San Luis Obispo for Center of Effort Challenge

April 09, 2026 | Beach Volleyball

No. 2 UCLA (21-4) will compete in the Center of Effort Beach Volleyball Challenge in San Luis Obispo April 10-11. The tournament will take at the Swanson Beach Volleyball Complex on the Cal Poly campus and will feature eight of the Top 15 teams in the nation. The Bruins kick off competition on Friday, April 10 against No. 9 California (18-7) at 4:15pm, followed by a 7pm matchup against No. 6 Cal Poly (21-5). On Saturday, April 1, UCLA faces No. 13 Arizona State (16-9) at 10:15am. Following all scheduled matches on Saturday will be placement matches based on tournament results through the first three matchups. The seventh-place match will begin at 2pm, followed by the fifth-place match at 3:15pm, the third-place match at 4:30pm and the championship match at 5:45pm.

UCLA will be facing California for the first time this season. The teams had been slated to face off in week one at the Outrigger Duke Kahanamoku Beach Classic but were rained out. This will be the Bruins' third time – and second consecutive week - facing Cal Poly this year. UCLA is 2-0 against the Mustangs, but last week's match went the distance, with the Bruins pulling out a 3-2 win at the Best in the West Tournament. UCLA handed Arizona State its first loss of the year at the East Meets West Invitational in Manhattan Beach on March 13.

The eight teams participating in the Center of Effort Challenge are No. 1 Stanford, No. 2 UCLA, No. 4 USC, No. 6 Cal Poly, No. 7 LMU, No. 8 TCU, No. 9 California and No. 13 Arizona State.

THIS WEEK'S SCHEDULE
Opponent: No. 9 California
Location: San Luis Obispo, Calif. (Swanson Beach Volleyball Complex)
Date: Friday, April 10
Time: 4:15 p.m. PT
Series History: UCLA leads 19-0 | Streak: Won 19
Last Meeting: W 3-0 (Apr. 24, 2025 – MPSF Tournament – Spiker Beach – Huntington Beach, Calif.)

Opponent: No. 6 Cal Poly
Location: San Luis Obispo, Calif. (Swanson Beach Volleyball Complex)
Date: Friday, April 10
Time: 7:00 p.m. PT
Series History: UCLA leads 17-1 | Streak: Won 2
Last Meeting: W 3-2 (April 3, 2026 – Best in the West @ Laguna Beach, Calif.)

Opponent: No. 13 Arizona State
Location: San Luis Obispo, Calif. (Swanson Beach Volleyball Complex)
Date: Saturday, April 11
Time: 10:15 a.m. PT
Series History: UCLA leads 13-1 | Streak: Won 13
Last Meeting: W 5-0 (March 13, 2026 – East Meets West Invitational @ Manhattan Beach, Calif.)

LAST TIME OUT
UCLA went 3-1 at the Best in the West Tournament, beating Cal Poly 3-2, USC 3-2 and Long Beach State 5-0 and losing to Stanford 3-2. Sally Perez and Maggie Boyd went 3-0 in the tournament, winning Court 1 matchups against Cal Poly, Stanford and USC. Adelina Okazaki and Mallory LaBreche went 2-0, winning twice on Court 4 on Day Two, including the deciding point over USC.

BOYD CONTINUES TO CLIMB UCLA's ALL-TIME WIN LIST
With three more victories last weekend, senior Maggie Boyd has increased her career victory total to 114, which ranks sixth all-time at UCLA. Boyd needs just three more wins to move into UCLA's Top 5. On Feb. 28, Boyd became the 11th Bruin to reach 100 career victories. She has 50 of her 111 wins with Perez, and the duo ranks No. 4 in school history for career wins as a pair.

UCLA Career Victories
1. Lexy Denaburg (2020-24) - 133
2. Abby Van Winkle (2019-23) - 128
3. Izzy Carey (2016-19) - 123
4. Savvy Simo (2017-21) - 119
5. Lea Monkhouse (2019-22) - 117
6. Maggie Boyd (2023-pres.) – 114

UCLA Career Pairs Victories
1. Megan McNamara/Nicole McNamara (2016-19) - 109
2. Sarah Sponcil/Lily Justine (2018-19) – 59
3. Maggie Boyd/Lexy Denaburg (2023-24) – 57
4. Sally Perez/Maggie Boyd (2025-pres.) – 53

TOP PERFORMERS
Sally Perez/Maggie Boyd have posted a 22-2 record on court 1, and Kaley Mathews/Ensley Alden are 15-3 overall, mainly on court 2. Harper Cooper/Alexa Fernandez are 10-2 overall, mostly on court 3. Five Bruins have reached the 20-win mark – Perez (23), Boyd (22), Alden (22), Cooper (22) and Ava Williamson (20). Mathews and Mallory LaBreche are close behind with 17 wins, and Fernandez has 15.

BRUIN COACHES
Entering her 13th year with the Bruins and third season as UCLA's head coach is Olympian, national champion and UCLA Athletics Hall of Famer Jenny Johnson Jordan. The 2025 MPSF Coach of the Year, Johnson Jordan sports an overall record of 88-18 (.830) as she continues her 2026 campaign after leading the Bruins to a 32-7 record and NCAA semifinal appearance in 2025. She guided the Bruins to the NCAA Championship finals in her first year, ending the 2024 campaign with a 35-7 record and a second-place finish at the Pac-12 Championship. As an assistant coach, she helped the Bruins win back-to-back NCAA titles in 2018 and 2019. Another Bruin national champion serves as an assistant coach. Kelly Reeves, the Bruins' first-ever beach volleyball All-American and a 2011 NCAA indoor volleyball champion, returns for her third season on staff. Former AVP Beach Volleyball star Theo Brunner is in his first year as an assistant coach.

IN THE RANKINGS
UCLA has been ranked No. 1 or 2 in every AVCA poll this week and is No. 2 for the second-straight week. Since 2018, no team has been ranked No. 1 for more weeks than the Bruins (46). USC has spent 27 weeks at No. 1 in the last seven years while TCU (10), Pepperdine (4), LSU (4), Stanford (4) and Florida State (1) round out the list. Overall, the Trojans have been ranked No. 1 a total of 50 times in the AVCA Poll, followed by UCLA (46), Pepperdine (17), TCU (10), Stanford (5), LSU (4), Hawai'i (1), and Florida State (1).

LOOKING AHEAD
UCLA returns to Mapes Beach for its final home match of the season on Tuesday, April 14 at 3pm against CSU Bakersfield. The Bruins will honor seniors Maggie Boyd, Kenzie Brower and Jayla Shanks at the conclusion of the match.