Stein Metzger Departs UCLA, Jenny Johnson Jordan Tabbed Interim Head Coach

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LOS ANGELES -- Stein Metzger, who guided the UCLA women's beach volleyball team to NCAA titles in 2018 and 2019, is departing UCLA to become the head coach at Texas, which will be in its second season of beach volleyball in 2024. UCLA Associate Head Coach Jenny Johnson Jordan has been named Interim Head Coach, effective immediately.

Metzger's Bruin teams went 266-61 (.813) in his 11 seasons, winning three Pac-12 Conference Championships (2018, 2021, and 2023) and making appearances in all seven NCAA Championship tournaments.

Metzger was hired as the Bruins' first-ever head coach to build the program in its inaugural year of 2013, and he hired Johnson Jordan as his assistant coach for the 2014 season. Just a fledgling program, the pair of UCLA Athletic Hall of Fame inductees (Metzger in 2009 and Johnson Jordan in 2018) quickly began to construct the UCLA Bruins into a national power. After competing in only a handful of duals each season from 2013-15, the 2016 season brought with it an elevated status, as the NCAA would hold its first-ever NCAA Beach Volleyball Championship. In the third year of the NCAA Championship's existence, Metzger and Johnson Jordan led the 2018 Bruins to their first national title, and UCLA repeated in 2019 and added Pac-12 titles in 2021 and 2023.

"These past 11 seasons have been an amazing journey, and I'm very grateful to Dan Guerrero and his staff for giving me the opportunity to build the foundation for this program," Metzger said. "I'm also very thankful to Martin Jarmond and his staff for their unwavering support of me and the Bruins' beach volleyball program. I'm forever indebted to my friend and coaching partner, Jenny Johnson Jordan, who has tirelessly been there by my side through the last decade as we built this national power together."

Metzger (2004) and Johnson Jordan (2000), have both represented the United States at the Olympic Games, and together, they produced another Bruin Beach Volleyball Olympian in Sarah Sponcil (2020). Sponcil is part of the nation's-leading 20 beach volleyball Olympians to play collegiately at UCLA. Both Bruin coaches also have NCAA Championship pedigree, with Metzger winning three NCAA titles with the men's indoor volleyball team (1993, 1995, and 1996) and Johnson Jordan winning an NCAA title with the women's indoor volleyball team in 1991 (also runner-up finishes in 1992 and 1994).

The Bruins have had 22 AVCA All-Americans, including four in 2023 (Lexy Denaburg and Maggie Boyd on the first team and Abby Van Winkle and Peri Brennan on the second team). UCLA also produced the first-ever four-time first-team All-America selections in Megan McNamara and Nicole McNamara (2016-19). Additionally this season, UCLA tied its own Pac-12, and NCAA record for wins in a single season with 40 (2018).

"With the success Stein has had throughout his career, it is no surprise that he has been in high demand. We are very thankful for everything he has done for UCLA throughout his time as a national champion student-athlete and coach and wish him all the best." said Martin Jarmond, UCLA's Alice and Nahum Lainer Family Director of Athletics. "We are also fortunate to have Jenny remain on staff as the interim head coach. Jenny has played such a pivotal role in bringing this program to the powerhouse it is today."