The Defending Champs Are Wobbling — and Stanford Is Licking Its Chops

Let’s talk about what’s actually happening in college beach volleyball right now, because the chaos is delicious.

TCU entered 2026 as defending national champions, riding a 12-match win streak and a 60-match home win streak that had become almost mythological. The Horned Frogs were the first program not named UCLA or USC to ever win the title. They were supposed to do it again.

And then Stanford walked into Fort Worth and ended everything.

No. 2 Stanford beat No. 7 TCU 4-1 on March 25, snapping the Horned Frogs’ 63-match home win streak — a number so absurd it barely seems real. Gone. Just like that. The pair that did the most damage? Kelly Belardi and Avery Jackson, who won at Flight 1 to help Stanford take an early lead, TCU never recovered from.

Here’s the thing: that loss didn’t come out of nowhere. TCU had already snapped a four-match losing streak the week prior, meaning the reigning champions spent a chunk of March in genuine freefall. For a program that averages 33 wins a season this decade, that is not a vibe.

The culprit? Turnover. Of the 12 Horned Frog starters from the 2025 NCAA Tournament, only four returned to Fort Worth this season. TCU went heavy into the transfer portal to compensate, but in the season opener, none of TCU’s starting pairs had ever competed together in a collegiate match. Chemistry takes time. Apparently, it takes until late March.

Meanwhile, Stanford is out here running victory laps. The Cardinal extended their win streak to 13 straight matches at the Best in the West tournament in Laguna Beach, beating No. 2 UCLA 3-2 in the most competitive match of the weekend. Belardi and Jackson are now 11-0 together as a pair, so locked in, they’re starting to feel inevitable.

The NCAA Championship bracket drops on April 26. Gulf Shores is May 1-3. Right now, Stanford looks like the team everyone is going to have to go through, and TCU — five losses deep — is going to need to find something fast.

The crown is up for grabs. This sport never lets you get comfortable. ☕🏐