The AVCA posted FSU’s undefeated pair — then quietly made UCLA’s Maggie Boyd Player of the Year

Fans caught the switch. Florida State’s 33–0 No. 1 pair never made the final cut. Here’s the full story.

---

Let’s set the scene. The 2026 beach volleyball season just wrapped up. UCLA swept Stanford in the national championship match to claim their third title. Maggie Boyd and Sally Perez clinched the crown. It was a historic, beautiful moment for the Bruins — and none of that is in dispute.

What is in dispute is what happened in the hours and days leading up to the confetti falling.

The AVCA — the American Volleyball Coaches Association, the people responsible for the sport’s most prestigious player recognitions — initially put out coverage that highlighted Florida State’s No. 1 pair, Alexis Durish and Audrey Koenig. Two players who went 33–0 on the season. Undefeated. Unblemished. Not a single loss to their name all year.

“33–0. Not one loss. And somehow they didn’t make the final awards post?”

Then the posts changed. The final official AVCA announcement named UCLA’s Maggie Boyd as the 2026 Beach Volleyball Player of the Year — Boyd ultimately earned AVCA Top Flight honors along with two other Bruin pairs. And FSU’s undefeated duo? Absent from the spotlight that many felt they had earned.

Fans noticed. And they showed up on the NCAAVolleyball Facebook comments to say so.

☕ The receipts — what happened

The AVCA’s initial social coverage spotlighted Florida State’s Alexis Durish and Audrey Koenig, the pair who went a perfect 33–0 at the No. 1 court in 2026.

The final awards post shifted focus to UCLA’s Maggie Boyd, whom the AVCA officially named 2026 Beach Volleyball Player of the Year.

Fans flooded the NCAAVolleyball Facebook post questioning why FSU’s undefeated pair was not featured in the championship All-Tournament Team recognition.

UCLA defeated Stanford 3–0 on May 3 to win the national title, with Boyd and Perez clinching the championship.

Now, Player of the Year awards are not purely about win-loss records. The AVCA weighs strength of schedule, competition level, and overall impact. Boyd had a phenomenal season, and her team literally won the national championship. There’s a reasonable argument to be made for her.

But here’s the thing. When you go undefeated at the No. 1 court, not just good, not just great, but 33 wins and zero losses, and the governing body initially features you in their coverage only to quietly swap you out with no explanation? That’s not just a narrative pivot. That’s a communication failure. And it’s exactly the kind of thing that erodes trust in the institutions that are supposed to celebrate these athletes.

Durish and Koenig put in a season that should be mentioned in the same breath as any Player of the Year conversation. The fans who spoke up in those comment sections weren’t being unreasonable; they were asking a completely fair question: why?

Whether Boyd was always the intended honoree and early coverage was simply premature, or whether something shifted between the initial posts and the final announcement, the AVCA owes its athletes and its fans more transparency than a quiet edit and a new post.

The volleyball community is small, passionate, and extremely online. You don’t get to swap who you’re celebrating and expect nobody to clock it.

“When you go 33–0, and the governing body features you, then doesn’t the least you deserve is an explanation.”

UCLA won the championship. Boyd deserves every flower she gets. And Durish and Koenig deserve acknowledgment for one of the most dominant single-season runs in recent beach volleyball history.

None of those things is mutually exclusive. The AVCA just made it feel like they were.

Stay saucy. ☕🏐