Ava Sarafa Is Heading to Westwood — And UCLA Women’s Volleyball Might Finally Be Back
The transfer portal keeps on giving, and this one is worth talking about.
Former Kentucky setter Ava Sarafa is transferring to UCLA for the 2026 season, arriving in Westwood after spending the spring semester at SMU. It’s the kind of winding journey that tells you a lot about how complicated the portal era really is. Kentucky to SMU to UCLA in the span of a few months is a lot of moving parts for one player. But the destination makes total sense, and here’s why it matters.
First, let’s talk about who Ava Sarafa actually is, because she came into college with a résumé that would make most players blush. She was the 2022 Andi Collins Award winner — that’s the award for the best setter in the entire country at the high school level. She was a First Team All-American, a three-time Michigan Division 1 State Champion, and finished her high school career with over 5,000 assists, ranking 15th all-time nationally. She arrived at Kentucky as one of the most decorated setters in her class.
At Kentucky, she played in 27 matches and 80 sets, putting up 136 assists on a program that made it all the way to the Final Four in 2025. The truth? She got beat out for the starting spot by freshman Kassie O’Brien, who went on to win AVCA National Freshman of the Year. That’s not a knock on Sarafa; that’s just a brutal situation. When a freshman comes in and wins the biggest individual award in the country, there’s not a lot of room for anyone else at your position.
So she entered the portal, landed at SMU for the spring to stay sharp and get some reps in, and now she’s headed to Los Angeles.
UCLA women’s volleyball has been, by their own standards, pretty average the last few seasons. Coach Alfee Reft said it himself, heading into 2025 — he wanted to finally get UCLA back to where it belongs. The Bruins have been rebuilding, using the portal aggressively, and Sarafa is the latest addition to a roster that is very clearly being built with postseason ambitions in mind.
The setter position at UCLA now has some real intrigue. Sarafa walks in with Final Four experience, an elite pedigree, and something to prove after being pushed out of her starting role at Kentucky. That combination — talent plus chip on the shoulder — tends to produce good volleyball.
UCLA hasn’t been to the NCAA Tournament in recent memory, the way a program of its history should be. Reft wants to change that in 2026. Sarafa showing up in Westwood is a statement that the rebuild is very much still in motion.
Keep an eye on this one when the season kicks off.