Stein Metzger, the 2017, 2018, and 2023 Pac-12 Coach of the Year and the 2017 and 2018 USMC/AVCAย National Coach of the Year,ย completed his 11th season as the UCLA Beach Volleyball Head Coach in 2023 after guiding UCLA to back-to-back NCAA Championships in 2018ย (40-4) and in 2019 (35-3). This past season, he guided UCLA to a runner-up finish at the NCAA Championshipย in 2023, finishing the year with an overall record of 40-4. It is the second time in program history that the Bruins have finished a seasonย at 40-4 (2018). The 40 wins are tied for the UCLA, Pac-12 and NCAA record for victories in a season.
Metzger produced his first Olympian in 2021 when Sarah Sponcil qualified for the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games. Sponcil became the 20th all-time beach volleyball Olympian that UCLA has produced. The 20 total Olympians to come out of UCLA (male and female) are the most of any schoolย (Stanford is second with seven) andย Sponcil is the 11th Bruin woman to qualify for the Olympics, which also leads the nation (Stanford is second with seven).
The Bruins' three losses in 2019 were all to USC by a score of 3-2. But seeded No. 2 for the NCAA Championship after the Trojans won the Pac-12 Championship, UCLA used it as fuel to the fire and defeated top-seeded USC in the NCAA title match, 3-0, without dropping a single set. The Bruins had four All-Americans for the first time in school history in 2019 as Megan and Nicole McNamara from court one and Sarah Sponcil and Lily Justine from court two were all honored by the AVCA. Additionally, the McNamara twins became the first tandem in the history of the NCAA to earnย first team All-America honors all four years.
UCLA also won a school-record 31 consecutive duals during the 2018 campaign and won its first-ever Pac-12 Conference Championship, defeating the defending champions USC twice on the same day to win the title. The Bruins beat the best all season long with 33 of their 40 victories coming in wins over nationally-ranked teams and going 5-1 on the year against the defending NCAA Champions, USC. Additionally, all four losses on the year were to teams ranked in the top four.
A U.S. Olympian and UCLA Hall of Famer, Metzger just completed the 2023ย season with an overall record of 266-61 (.813) and has gone 224-33 (.872) in the last seven seasons (2017-23).
In 2017, the Bruins picked up a lot of firsts, but none were larger than knocking off crosstown rival No. 1 USC in the semifinals of the Pac-12 Championship. UCLA also posted its first-ever win over then-No. 2 Florida State, 3-2, in the final game of the Inaugural East Meets West Challenge, hosted by UCLA at legendary Manhattan Beach Pier in Manhattan Beach, Calif. Along the way, UCLA finished with a then-school-record 30 wins compared to just six defeats and won a then-school-record 24 consecutive duals, finishing second at the Pac-12 Championship.
In 2016, the Bruins finished third at the inaugural NCAA Beach Volleyball Championship in Gulf Shores, Ala. UCLA ended the season with a 22-8 overall record, including going 3-2 at NCAA's, defeating 8th-seeded Stetson (3-2), 3rd-seeded Pepperdine (3-2) and 5th-seeded Hawai'i (3-0). The Bruins fell in the elimination bracket to No. 1 Florida State (3-1).
Beach volleyball saw several changesย inย 2015, when UCLA announced that Coachย Metzgerย wouldย leave his duties as assistant indoor coach to focus solely on beach. In addition, theย Pac-12 Conferenceย announced during the summer of 2015 that beach volleyball wouldย become a Pac-12 sponsored sport effective the 2016 season. Additionally, the NCAA officially sponsored its first national championship in 2016.
The Pac-12's adoption of beach volleyball made it the league's 23rd sport and the first major conference to sponsor beach volleyball. Eight member institutions currently sponsor beach volleyball, well above the conference threshold of six. In a related decision, beach volleyball had a Pac-12 Championship beginning in the spring of 2016.
Metzgerย has guided UCLA Beach Volleyball sinceย its inaugural season in the spring of 2013. The Bruins have been ranked in the Top 10 throughout each of their first 10 campaigns. Debuting the sand teamย competitively just two months after the sport was added to UCLA's athletic program, Metzger guided Kelly Reeves to the program's first sand All-America award in 2013, while two pairs (Reeves and Meg Norton and Zoë Nightingale and Becca Strehlow) each made the AVCA National Championships.
Over the first three seasons of Bruin sand volleyball, Metzger, who is one of UCLAโs NCAA-record 20 Beach Volleyball Olympians, led the program to 20 dual wins (10 in 2015) and coached three sets of pairsโ teams to the AVCA National Championships, includingย Zoë Nightingaleย andย Kamila Tanย in 2015. The fast-growing discipline became an NCAA-sponsored sport in 2016, the first year an NCAA Championship was awarded in beach volleyball.
He went on to win two more National Championships in 1995 and '96, getting named to the NCAA All-Tournament Team both times. Metzger earned AVCA First-Team All-America and ASICS/Volleyball Magazine All-America honors both seasons, while earning AVCA Co-Player of the Year accolades as a team captain during his senior campaign. He was also named to the all-conference team three times, including First Team in '96.
Following his days in Westwood, Metzger competed professionally on the AVP Tour, winning 16 times with partners Kevin Wong (two times), Jake Gibb (four), Mike Lambert (nine) and Mark Williams (one). Metzger was twice a part of the AVP Team of the Year with Gibb ('05) and Lambert ('06), ranking as the Tour's top player both seasons. He earned the Crocs Cup title in 2006.
In 2004, Metzger earned a spot on the U.S. Olympic Beach Volleyball team, finishing in fifth with partner Dax Holdren. A year prior, the duo won the silver medal at the 2003 Beach Volleyball World Championships in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Metzger also has two international titles to his credit with Wong in 2001 and '02, as well as a Bronze medal at the '01 Goodwill Games.
In addition to his collegiate coaching accolades, Metzger has trained U.S., French and Israeli National Beach teams. He has also coached with the USA Volleyball Elite Development Program.
A 1996 graduate of UCLA with a degree in environmental studies, Metzger was inducted into the UCLA Athletics Hall of Fame in 2009. Metzger and his wife, Emily, live in Redondo Beach with their daughter, Quinn, and son, Otto.
