No. 3 Texas Beach Volleyball Is Coming for the Throne — and Nobody’s Ready

Texas is quietly becoming the most dangerous program in college beach volleyball right now, and if you’re not paying attention yet, you’re already behind.

Last weekend at the Texas Invitational on their home sand, the Longhorns went 3-1, defeating No. 3 USC and No. 10 Long Beach State to close out the tournament, moving to 16-6 overall with 15 wins against ranked opponents. But the result that has everyone talking? Texas took down No. 1 UCLA 3-2 — the program’s first-ever win over a top-ranked opponent. On their home court. In front of their home crowd. In front of a sold-out crowd that absolutely lost it. That wasn’t just a win. That was a statement.

The hero of the moment was the Court 1 pair of Brecht Piersma and Katie Hashman. After dropping the first set 13-21, the duo flipped the script with a dominant 21-12 second set and pulled away in the third 15-12 to seal the upset. Clutch doesn’t even begin to cover it.

And this is no fluke. The Longhorns have gone 16-6 against ranked opponents this season, picking up three top-10 wins at the Texas Invitational alone. Head coach Stein Metzger said it best after the UCLA win: “We want to be the dominant team in the country. I would say we’re still chasing those teams, but to get them on our home turf and get wins against them — now we have the confidence that we can beat any team on any given day.”

Somebody frame that quote.

Keep your eyes on freshman twins Anna and Kacka Pavelkova, who have been a menace all season long. And the Robertson-Davis pair on Court 3 has quietly been one of the most consistent duos in the country. Texas’s top pair of Piersma and Hashman finished the Texas Invitational weekend with a team-leading 27-7 record. That’s not a hot streak, that’s dominance.

For context on just how loaded this season is: TCU won the 2025 national championship, the first title in program history, beating Loyola Marymount in a dramatic 3-2 final and ending USC’s four-year stranglehold on the sport. Now TCU has a target on its back, Stanford and UCLA are hunting, and No. 3 Texas is kicking the door down.

The 2026 NCAA Beach Volleyball Championship is set for May 1-3 in Gulf Shores, Alabama, the same beach that has hosted every championship since 2016. And this weekend, Texas hosts the Longhorn Showdown on April 3-4 in Austin, facing Washington, Tulane, and Houston Christian. The race to Gulf Shores just got a whole lot more interesting.

VolleyTea will be watching. 🏐