LA JOLLA, Calif.—UC San Diego women's volleyball will begin Big West play this week, playing host to Cal State Fullerton and traveling to face UC Irvine.
 
The Tritons (2-10, 0-0 Big West) will host the Titans (5-7, 0-0 Big West) on Friday at 6 p.m. in LionTree Arena for the annual UC San Diego Block Party. The night will include a pregame fan fest, free pizza for students (while supplies last) and free t-shirts for the first 750 students. General admission tickets for the match are $5 when using the code TRITON5 at checkout.
 
UC San Diego will return to the road on Saturday, traveling to face the Anteaters (5-7, 0-0 Big West) at 5 p.m. in Irvine. Both matches will be broadcast on ESPN+ and live statistics will be available via UCSDTritons.com.
 
DETAILS
Match 13
UC San Diego (2-10, 0-0) vs Cal State Fullerton (5-7, 0-0)
Friday, Sept. 26 | 6 p.m.
LionTree Arena (5,000) | La Jolla, Calif.
All-time series: 7-0
Division I series: 7-0
Streak: W7
Last meeting: UCSD 3, CSF 1 (Nov. 9, 2024)
Watch on ESPN+ | Live Stats

Match 14
UC San Diego at UC Irvine (5-7, 0-0) 
Saturday, Sept. 27 | 5 p.m.
Bren Events Center (5,000) | Irvine, Calif.
All-time series: 3-8
Division I series: 3-4
Streak: W3
Last meeting: UCSD 3, UCI 1 (Nov. 8, 2024)
Watch on ESPN+ | Live Stats

 

ABOUT THE TRITONS	ABOUT CAL ST. FULLERTON	ABOUT UC IRVINE
Roster | Schedule | Stats	Roster | Schedule | Stats	Roster | Schedule | Stats
Overall: 2-10	Overall: 5-7	Overall: 5-7
2024 Big West: 11-7	2024 Big West: 0-18	2024 Big West: 10-8
Home: 1-2	Home: 0-0	Home: 1-2
Away: 1-3	Away: 1-3	Away: 1-4
Neutral: 0-5	Neutral: 4-4	Neutral: 3-1
vs. Ranked Opponents: 0-0	vs. Ranked Opponents: 0-0	vs. Ranked Opponents: 0-0
Streak: W1	Streak: W1	Streak: W1

 
LAST TIME OUT
The Tritons went 1-2 at the joint event hosted by crosstown foes USD and San Diego State last weekend, falling to SDSU, 1-3, and Yale, 2-3, before bouncing back to win a thriller at (RV) San Diego, 3-2. Mika Rome and Kayla Uhlick were named to the all-tournament team.
 
UC San Diego 1, San Diego State 3
Set scores: 16-25, 24-26, 25-18, 18-25
Top performers: McNees (18 kills, 3 blocks); McCluskey (15 kills, 7 digs, 3 aces); Afonso (10 kills); Rome (43 assists); Baillie (13 digs); Uhlick (9 digs, 2 aces)
Notables: Ireland McNees recorded a season best 18 kills, hitting .341 in the contest.
 
UC San Diego 2, Yale 3
Set scores: 25-16, 20-25, 25-22, 25-27, 12-15
Top performers: Afonso (20 kills); McCluskey (19 kills, 11 digs, 4 blocks); McNees (15 kills, 12 digs, 2 aces); Olgar (5 blocks); Rome (56 assists, 17 digs, 2 blocks); Baillie (15 digs, 5 assists); Uhlick (12 digs)
Notables: McCluskey tallied her fifth double-double, McNees recorded her second and Rome collected her first. Five Tritons recorded double-figure digs. 
 
UC San Diego 3, (RV) San Diego 2
Set scores: 25-22, 25-21, 17-25, 25-27, 16-14
Top performers: Afonso (18 kills); McNees (16 kills, 15 digs, 4 blocks); McCluskey (14 kills, 12 digs, 3 aces); Olgar (7 kills, 6 blocks); Johnson (5 blocks); Rome (50 assists); Uhlick (9 digs)
Notables: McCluskey recorded her sixth double-double and McNees recorded her third.
 
STACKING UP AGAINST THE BIG WEST
Sophomore opposite Molly McCluskey ranks second in the Big West in total kills (171) and points (198.0), third in total attacks (445), fourth in kills per set (3.72) and points per set (4.30) and sixth in attacks per set (9.67).
 
Setter Mika Rome ranks sixth in the conference in assists per set (8.63) and Maija Nepszy ranks just behind her in seventh (8.10 per set). Middle Jasmine Saran ranks 11th in blocks per set (0.94). Paulina Baillie ranks eighth in total digs (136) and ninth in digs per set (2.96).
 
UC SAN DIEGO HEADED TO THE WCC
On Sept. 3, 2025, UC San Diego accepted a formal invitation to join the West Coast Conference (WCC) beginning July 1, 2027. UC San Diego will compete in 14 of the West Coast Conference's 16 sponsored sports, including men's and women's basketball, men's and women's soccer, women's volleyball, men's and women's cross country, men's water polo, baseball, softball, men's and women's tennis, men's golf and women's rowing. The university remains committed to finding a conference affiliation for its sports that will not compete in the West Coast Conference.
 
Beginning in 2027-28, the WCC membership will consist of: University of California San Diego, Loyola Marymount University, University of the Pacific, Pepperdine University, University of Portland, Saint Mary's College, University of San Diego, University of San Francisco, Santa Clara University, and Seattle University. UC San Diego will become the first public institution in the West Coast Conference since the departure of the University of Nevada-Reno in 1979.
 
ANDY FEE NAMED ATHLETIC DIRECTOR AT UC SAN DIEGO 
On Sept. 10, 2025, UC San Diego Chancellor Pradeep K. Khosla announced the hiring of college sports veteran Andy Fee as the Tritons' new Director of Athletics. Fee will become just the fourth Director of Athletics at UC San Diego since 1966. Fee joins the Tritons after spending the 2024-25 season as Deputy AD at Seattle University. Prior to Seattle U, Fee spent two years at Washington as Deputy AD and Chief of Staff. 
 
Before relocating to Seattle, Fee spent five years as Director of Athletics at Long Beach State from 2017 to 2022. During this time, Long Beach State's athletic programs found great success as the school advanced to the postseason in 18 of its 19 sports programs in his five-year tenure. The Beach won a pair of national championships in men's volleyball and claimed The Big West Commissioner's Cup three times. 
 
No stranger to conference transition, Fee will help guide the Tritons into the West Coast Conference in 2027-28. He also helped guide Washington into the Big Ten and Seattle U into the WCC in July.
 
McCLUSKEY NAMED BIG WEST OFFENSIVE PLAYER OF THE WEEK (SEPT. 1)
Sophomore Molly McCluskey earned Big West Offensive Player of the Week after a record-setting performance to open the 2025 season. The Tritons' opposite set two of the program's single-match records and a new career high at the UC San Diego Invitational to earn a spot on the all-tournament team as well as UCU Athlete of the Week. For the weekend, she averaged a staggering 5.82 points, 5.09 kills and 2.64 digs in three matches.
 
McCluskey recorded back-to-back double-doubles to start the year. She set the program Division I single match record for hitting percentage, terminating at a .682 clip with 16 kills on 22 swings and just one error on Friday against Eastern Washington. McCluskey set another program record with 33.0 total points on Sunday against Northwestern, recording a career high 29 kills, adding two aces and four blocks. She also finished the four-set match two kills shy of the program's all-time single match record.
 
TRITON RETURNERS
Last season the Tritons finished 17-13 overall and 11-7 in Big West play to earn their first trip to the Big West Championship. UC San Diego returns three starters from a season ago including senior Jasmine Saran (middle blocker) and sophomores Paulina Baillie (libero) and Molly McCluskey (opposite). The senior class includes Katie Rapp, Jasmine Saran and Kayla Uhlick.
 
FRESH FACES
UC San Diego women's volleyball will add nine newcomers to its roster for the 2025 season. The Tritons will welcome five first-year scholar-athletes, including Maria Fernanda Afonso (Curitiba, Brazil), Stefania Alupei (Bucharest, Romania), Alba Canko (Temecula, Calif.), Maija Nepszy (Windsor, Ontario) and Mina Olgar (Istanbul, Turkey).
 
Transfers Marleena Catalan (San Diego, Calif.), Ireland McNees (Riverton, Utah),  Zahara Quraishi (West Hartford, Conn.) and Mika Rome (Ra'anana, Israel) join UC San Diego after competing for Portland, Oklahoma, Chicago State and LSU, respectively.
 
TRITONS PICKED TO FINISH SEVENTH
UC San Diego women's volleyball was picked to finish seventh in the Big West Preseason Coaches' Poll, as decided by the conference's 11 head coaches. Hawai'i was picked to finish first with 94 points and five of the first-place votes, while Cal Poly ranked just behind with 92 points and five first-place votes as well. 
 
UC Davis was picked to finish third with 75 points and UC Santa Barbara received the remaining first place vote with 73 points in fourth place. Long Beach State (68 points) was picked fifth, followed by UC Irvine (53), UC San Diego (50), CSUN (42), Cal State Bakersfield (23), Cal State Fullerton (21) and UC Riverside (14).
 
WINNING IN THE CLASSROOM
Iris Canko, Jasmine Saran and Kayla Uhlick were three of the six women's volleyball scholar-athletes named to the Big West All-Academic team for the 2024 fall season. Saran was also named to the College Sports Communicators (CSC) Academic All-District Team for the second straight year. UC San Diego women's volleyball had 14 scholar-athletes named to the Big West Commissioner's Honor Roll, including nine Tritons receiving Highest Honors with a 3.51-4.00 grade point average.
 
GREENE ENTERS SECOND SEASON AT THE HELM
On March 20, 2024, UC San Diego Director of Athletics Earl W. Edwards named Melanie Greene the new women's volleyball head coach. Greene became the seventh head coach in UC San Diego women's volleyball history. A native of San Diego, Greene brings a wealth of Division I experience, most recently as associate head coach at San Diego State. She was involved in the Aztecs' program—both as a coach and as a scholar-athlete—since 2004. 
 
A three-year letterwinner for the Aztecs, Greene came to San Diego State in 2004 after two years at Washington State where she redshirted during her freshman year. A three-year starter as an outside hitter, she averaged 3.46 kills and 2.73 digs per set while leading the team in kills and finishing among the top three in digs each season.
 
Born in San Diego while her father, Ken Greene, was a member of the San Diego Chargers, Greene later moved to Nampa, Idaho, where she attended Nampa Christian High School. As a prep athlete she won a total of 12 varsity letters in volleyball, basketball and track and field, earning all-state honors in all three sports. Greene graduated from San Diego State in 2007 with a bachelor's degree in recreation administration. She completed her master's degree in leadership and organizational studies at Azusa Pacific in 2010.
 
ON THE MOVE
After 20 seasons playing as an NCAA Division II team, the entire athletics program has completed its four-year transition to NCAA Division I, culminating in full DI status as a member of the Big West Conference for the 2024-25 academic year. All sports are now eligible for both conference and NCAA postseason play.
 
WHY THE TRITONS?
The Triton is described as the offspring of Poseidon and Amphitrite, a demigod of the sea with a lower part of the body like that of a fish. It is known as a mighty and fierce sea warrior. Given UC San Diego's close proximity to the Pacific Ocean and its connections with the world-famous Scripps Institution of Oceanography, the Triton became our mascot in 1964.
 
UC SAN DIEGO ON THE WORLDWIDE LEADER
Most UC San Diego home men's and women's basketball games, men's and women's soccer matches, men's and women's volleyball matches, baseball and softball games are broadcast live on ESPN+. For more information on where to watch UC San Diego women's volleyball, visit UCSDTritons.com/live.
 
GAME DAY GOES DIGITAL
Triton fans now have a whole new way to access game day information, as game programs have gone digital! Fans can visit UCSDTritons.com from their smart phone or scan the QR code at the entrance to LionTree Arena for everything they need to know about each home game, including updated rosters, schedules, and stats for each team, as well as links to watch on ESPN+.
 
COVERING THE TRITONS
Media members wishing to cover a UC San Diego game in-person at LionTree Arena must notify a member of the Athletics Communication staff no later than 24 hours prior to the game. Following the conclusion of each home game, a video highlight melt and video postgame interviews will be made available for media members to download.
 
GET SOCIAL WITH UC SAN DIEGO WOMEN'S VOLLEYBALL
Keep up with the Tritons all season long on social media through X and Instagram. The team's handle is @ucsdwvb.
 
FOR THE YOUNGER CROWD
Got some young Triton fans in your family? If they are eighth grade or under, check out the Junior Triton Club. Membership includes a free t-shirt, admission to over 100 UC San Diego home athletic events, and much more!
 
GEAR
For the latest Triton apparel and accessories, click here.
 
About UC San Diego Athletics
After two decades as one of the most successful programs in NCAA Division II, the UC San Diego intercollegiate athletics program began a new era in 2020 as a member of The Big West in NCAA Division I. The 23-sport Tritons earned 30 team and nearly 150 individual national championships during its time in Divisions II and III and helped guide 1,400 scholar-athletes to All-America honors. A total of 84 Tritons have earned Academic All-America honors, while 38 have earned prestigious NCAA Post Graduate Scholarships. UC San Diego scholar-athletes exemplify the academic ideals of one of the world's preeminent institutions, graduating at an average rate of 91 percent, one of the highest rates among institutions at all divisions.