The UCLA women's volleyball program began its first year in 1965. Andy Banachowski was the head coach each year since 1965 until his retirement after the 2009 season, with the exception of the two seasons of 1968–69 and 1969–70, after he graduated from UCLA. In those seasons, Mardi Hardy Monroe was the head coach. Michael Sealy took over as head coach in 2010 and led the team to a national championship in 2011.

Banachowski had more wins than any other NCAA Division I women's volleyball coach, with a record (since 1970, since no records were kept from 1965 to 1969) of 1,106–301. Banachowski had led UCLA to six national championships (3 NCAA–1984, 1990, 1991; 2 AIAW–1974, 1975; and 1 DGWS–1972). UCLA has made 27 of 28 NCAA tournaments and has made 11 NCAA Final Fours, which is tied with Nebraska as the second most Final Four appearances of all Division I programs.

A record-setting crowd of 10,498 saw the Bruins play against No. 1 ranked Nebraska Huskers in Pauley Pavilion on November 14, 2025.

NCAA championships

1984 UCLA claimed the program's first NCAA national title (fourth overall) after four previous runner-up finishes following the team's 1975 AIAW title. In the deciding fifth game against Stanford, UCLA was down 12–4, but with heroics from Liz Masakayan, the Bruins continued to chip away at the lead before earning match point at 14–13. Masakayan had the final kill to give UCLA the 15–13 win.After trailing 12–4, UCLA women rally to win NCAA volleyball title

1990 UCLA won the NCAA title by defeating Pacific 15–9, 15–12, 15–7. UCLA was led by Natalie Williams and Marissa Hatchett who had 12 kills a piece. The Bruins finished the 1990 season 36–1.

1991

Playing at Pauley Pavilion, the Bruins repeated as NCAA champions by defeating Long Beach State in five games. After losing the first two games by the scores of 15–12, 15–13, UCLA completed off a huge comeback to take the next three games, 15–12, 15–6, 15–11.

UCLA's comebacks was one of the biggest in NCAA history, since this match, no team had ever before rallied from 2 games to 0 to win in five games in the NCAA national championship. UCLA finished their season 31–5

2011

After 20 years, the UCLA Bruins captured their fourth NCAA title and seventh overall by defeating Illinois 3–1 on December 17, 2011, at the Alamodome in San Antonio, Texas. The Bruins were seeded ninth in the NCAA championship tournament. On their way to the title game, they defeated 4-time defending champions Penn State and No. 1 seeded Texas to face No. 3 seeded Illinois. Rachael Kidder was named the most outstanding player of the tournament. Lauren Van Orden and Zoe Nightingale were also named to the all tournament team. Head coach Michael Sealy became a champion both as a player and a head coach. The women's volleyball team was featured in the new Pac-12 Networks Promo for the 2012 season.

Season-by-season results

Note: No records were kept until the 1970–71 season.

The three seasons from 1965–1968 and 40 seasons from 1970–2009 were coached by Andy Banachowski.

Conference History 1974–1975: Southern California Women's Intercollegiate Athletic Conference 1976–1984: Western Collegiate Athletic Association 1985: PacWest Conference 1986–present: Pac-12 Conference

YearOverall recordConference recordConference standingPostseason 1969–70 DGWS 2nd Place 1970–71 23–1 – 1971–72 28–1 DGWS Champions 1972–73 23–9 AIAW 3rd Place 1973 26–8 AIAW 4th Place 1974 28–2 2–2 3rd AIAW Champions 1975 32–2 4–0 1st AIAW Champions 1976 29–8 6–2 2nd AIAW Runners-Up 1977 32–8 6–2 2nd AIAW 3rd Place 1978 33–5 7–1 1st AIAW Runners-Up 1979 27–12 9–3 2nd AIAW 3rd Place 1980 38–14 10–2 2nd AIAW 4th Place 1981 34–11 10–2 2nd NCAA Runners-Up 1982 28–14 6–8 5th NCAA Regional Final 1983 44–6 13–1 1st NCAA Runners-Up 1984 33–6 11–3 2nd NCAA Champions 1985 29–8 5–3 2nd NCAA Final Four 1986 31–10 17–1 1st NCAA first round 1987 28–10 13–5 2nd NCAA Regional semifinal 1988 34–1 18–0 1st NCAA Final Four 1989 30–3 18–0 1st NCAA Final Four 1990 36–1 18–0 1st NCAA Champions 1991 31–5 16–2 2nd NCAA Champions 1992 33–1 18–0 1st NCAA Runners-Up 1993 30–2 17–1 1st NCAA Regional Final 1994 32–4 16–2 2nd NCAA Runners-Up 1995 23–9 12–6 2nd NCAA Regional Final 1996 17–14 9–9 6th – 1997 17–13 9–9 6th NCAA second round 1998 16–12 13–5 3rd NCAA second round 1999 28–4 17–1 1st NCAA Regional Final 2000 25–8 14–4 4th NCAA Regional Final 2001 21–9 12–6 4th NCAA Regional Final 2002 20–14 9–9 5th NCAA second round 2003 24–9 12–6 3rd NCAA Regional Final 2004 21–11 11–7 4th NCAA Regional Final 2005 20–11 10–8 5th NCAA Regional semifinal 2006 33–4 15–3 2nd NCAA Final Four 2007 23–11 9–9 5th NCAA Regional Final 2008 22–11 9–9 5th NCAA Regional semifinal 2009 24–9 13–5 2nd NCAA second round 2010 22–9 11–7 4th NCAA second round 2011 30–6 17–5 2nd NCAA Champions 2012 23–8 14–6 4th NCAA Second Round 2013 15–15 6–14 10th NCAA DNQ 2014 22–12 11–9 4th NCAA Regional semifinal 2015 25–8 14–6 4th NCAA Regional semifinal 2016 27–7 15–5 2nd NCAA Regional Final 2017 21–11 12–8 5th NCAA Regional semifinal 2018 13-14 8-12 9th NCAA DNQ 2019 19-12 13-7 4th NCAA Second Round 2020 15-7 14-6 5th NCAA Second Round 2021 25–6 16–4 2nd NCAA Regional semifinal 2022 9–8 3–5 Updated 10/16/22Total 1,372–424 568–230

Olympians Former players who have gone to the Olympic Games to play or coach.

Players Laurie Lewis – 1968 (indoor) Jeanne (Beauprey) Reeves – 1984 (indoor) Liz Masakayan – 1988 (indoor) Elaine Youngs – 1996 (indoor), 2004 & 2008 (beach) Holly McPeak – 1996, 2000, & 2004 (beach) Linda (Robertson) Handley – 1996 (beach) Annett Davis – 2000 (beach) Jenny Johnson Jordan – 2000 (beach) Elisabeth Bachman – 2004 (indoor) Coaches Jeanne (Beauprey) Reeves – 1996 (assistant coach) Liz Masakayan – 2004 & 2008 (Coach of McPeak/Youngs beach volleyball team)

Postseason

The UCLA Bruins have an NCAA Division I Tournament record of 90–32 through thirty-five appearances.

1981 Regional semifinalsRegional finalsSemifinalsNational Championship PurdueStanfordSan Diego StateUSC W 3–2W 3–2W 3–1L 2–3 1982 First roundRegional semifinalsRegional finals LouisvilleBYUSan Diego State W 3–0W 3–0L 1–3 1983 Regional semifinalsRegional finalsSemifinalsNational Championship Penn StateWestern MichiganPacificHawaii W 3–0W 3–0W 3–2L 0–3 1984 Regional semifinalsRegional finalsSemifinalsNational Championship DukeTexasSan Jose StateStanford W 3–0W 3–1W 3–0W 3–2 1985 Regional semifinalsRegional finalsSemifinals GeorgiaTexasPacific W 3–0W 3–0L 1–3 1986 First round Loyola Marymount L 2–3 1987 First roundRegional semifinals CaliforniaBYU W 3–1L 1–3 1988 First roundRegional semifinalsRegional finalsSemifinals CaliforniaBYUWashingtonTexas W 3–0W 3–0W 3–0L 0–3 1989 First roundRegional semifinalsRegional finalsSemifinals PepperdineArizonaWyomingNebraska W 3–1W 3–0W 3–0L 0–3 1990 First roundRegional semifinalsRegional finalsSemifinalsNational Championship GonzagaNew MexicoStanfordLSUPacific W 3–0W 3–1W 3–0W 3–0W 3–0 1991 First roundRegional semifinalsRegional finalsSemifinalsNational Championship PepperdineNew MexicoStanfordOhio StateLong Beach State W 3–0W 3–0W 3–0W 3–0W 3–2 1992 First roundRegional semifinalsRegional finalsSemifinalsNational Championship Ball StateArizona StateBYUFloridaStanford W 3–0W 3–0W 3–0W 3–0L 1–3 1993 Second roundRegional semifinalsRegional finals New MexicoStanfordBYU W 3–0W 3–1L 0–3 1994 Second roundRegional semifinalsRegional finalsSemifinalsNational Championship Georgia TechDukeHoustonPenn StateStanford W 3–0W 3–0W 3–0W 3–2L 1–3 1995 Second roundRegional semifinalsRegional finals Ball StateOhio StateNebraska W 3–0W 3–0L 0–3 1997 First roundSecond round PepperdineUC Santa Barbara W 3–1L 2–3 1998 First roundSecond round VirginiaUC Santa Barbara W 3–1L 1–3 1999 First roundSecond roundRegional semifinalsRegional finals Eastern WashingtonOhio StatePepperdinePenn State W 3–0W 3–0W 3–0L 0–3 2000 First roundSecond roundRegional semifinalsRegional finals Morgan StateMichigan StatePacificWisconsin W 3–0W 3–2W 3–1L 2–3 2001 First roundSecond roundRegional semifinalsRegional finals PennPenn StateHawaiiLong Beach State W 3–0W 3–0W 3–1L 0–3 2002 First roundSecond round Long Beach StatePepperdine W 3–0L 1–3 2003 First roundSecond roundRegional semifinalsRegional finals San DiegoUC IrvineNebraskaUSC W 3–0W 3–0W 3–1L 1–3 2004 First roundSecond roundRegional semifinalsRegional finals Loyola MarymountLong Beach StatePenn StateWashington W 3–1W 3–0W 3–1L 2–3 2005 First roundSecond roundRegional semifinals KansasSan DiegoNebraska W 3–1W 3–0L 0–3 2006 First roundSecond roundRegional semifinalsRegional finalsSemifinals UABUtahOklahomaHawaiiNebraska W 3–0W 3–0W 3–0W 3–0L 1–3 2007 First roundSecond roundRegional semifinalsRegional finals Alabama A&MClemsonOregonStanford W 3–0W 3–1W 3–1L 1–3 2008 First roundSecond roundRegional semifinals LSUDukeTexas W 3–1W 3–0L 1–3 2009 First roundSecond round Long Beach StateBaylor W 3–0L 1–3 2010 First roundSecond round AmericanTexas W 3–2L 1–3 2011 First roundSecond roundRegional semifinalsRegional finalsSemifinalsNational Championship UMESSan DiegoPenn StateTexasFlorida StateIllinois W 3–0W 3–1W 3–0W 3–1W 3–0W 3–1 2012 First roundSecond round LIU BrooklynMichigan State W 3–0L 1–3 2014 First roundSecond roundRegional semifinals LIU BrooklynLong Beach StatePenn State W 3–0W 3–0L 0–3 2015 First roundSecond roundRegional semifinals LipscombMichiganTexas W 3–0W 3–2L 1–3 2016 First roundSecond roundRegional semifinalsRegional finals Murray StateBaylorNorth CarolinaMinnesota W 3–1W 3–0W 3–1L 0–3 2017 First roundSecond roundRegional semifinals Austin PeayCal PolyFlorida W 3–0W 3–1L 1–3

See also List of NCAA Division I women's volleyball programs

References

External links