The rematch of the last two NCAA Tournament finals is set.
Long Beach State as part of recently unveiling its 2026 schedule announced it will continue its annual non-conference series against UCLA.
The Beach and the Bruins have combined to win the three most recent NCAA championships and five of the last seven national championships. In addition, the two teams have appeared in the last two NCAA finals with UCLA beating Long Beach State in 2024 and then the Beach beating the Bruins last season.
This will be the fifth consecutive season the teams have met in non-conference play. Unlike recent years, the series this season will switch from home-and-home matches to a single match at Long Beach State.
Multiple starters return for the defending champion Beach highlighted with All-American opposite Skyler Varga. Varga finished last season in the nation’s top 20 with a .368 attack percentage.
UCLA leads the nation with four returning All-Americans. Among these All-Americans includes Cameron Thorne who won the 2025 Ryan Millar Award as the nation’s top middle attacker.
The UCLA match will be one of four non-conference matches that Long Beach State will play against teams that reached the NCAA Tournament last season.
Long Beach State also will have home matches against Fort Valley State and Penn State along with a road match against Pepperdine.
2026 Long Beach State schedule
Jan. 9 vs. Lindenwood
Jan. 10 vs. McKendree
Jan. 14 at Central State
Jan. 16 vs.George Mason (at Ohio State)
Jan. 17 at Ohio State
Jan. 23 vs. Fort Valley State
Jan. 24 vs. Long Island
Jan. 30 at Pepperdine
Feb. 7 vs. UCLA
Feb. 14 vs. Vanguard
Feb. 19-20 at Anaheim Tournament
Feb. 27 at Concordia
Feb. 28 vs. Concordia
March 7 vs. Penn State
March 13 vs. Jessup
March 20 vs. Hawai’i
March 21 vs. Hawai’i
March 27 at CSUN
March 28 vs. CSUN
April 3 at UC San Diego
April 4 vs. UC San Diego
April 10 vs. UC Santa Barbara
April 11 at UC Santa Barbara
April 17 vs. UC Irvine
April 18 at UC Irvine