Sophmore Piper Monk commits to UCLA for both beach and indoor volleyball

Staff Writer
Christian Cavallo

Last year, volleyball star sophomore Piper Monk, a fulfilled her dreams of receiving a scholarship from UCLA for sand volleyball.

Monk is currently on the Costa varsity girls volleyball team for both indoor and on the beach. She plays the position of middle and opposite for indoor volleyball. She also plays beach volleyball for Elite Beach Volleyball Club and Bruin Beach Volleyball Club.

“I have always wanted to go to UCLA so I really tried to impress the head coach Stein Metzger,” Monk said. “Everytime I saw him watching some of my games made me want to join his club.”

She used to snowboard a lot until she was introduced to volleyball when she was eight. Although she didn’t enjoy it as much as snowboarding, she was quite good at it. Now she is competitive volleyball player. She practices every weekday for two hours or more and spends most weekends playing in tournaments for Elite Beach Volleyball Club and Bruin Volleyball Club.

“My mom grew up watching beach volleyball, and my older brother and sister started playing around the same age,” Monk said. “So naturally I started playing volleyball the same age my siblings started.”

Before committing to UCLA she had received letters from Arizona, Hawaii, LSU, and Pepperdine. Being one of the top performers in her division, UCLA sent her a scholarship and she knew she had to take it. She is ranked eighty-fifth in the adult ratings. She is verbally committed, but not officially allowed to sign until Sept. 1st of her junior year.

“Last year I joined the head coach’s club, Bruin Beach Volleyball, and let him know how interested I was in UCLA,” said Monk. “After that, my coaches from Elite Beach helped me communicate and set up a date to have an unofficial visit.”

UCLA is one of the highest ranked school for volleyball especially sand volleyball. It is a Pac-12 sponsored sort effective this upcoming academic year. Metzger’s UCLA’s NCAA-record 13 Beach Volleyball Olympians, has led the program to 20 dual wins. The sand team is getting over populated by Bruin indoor players.

“While at UCLA I am going to work as hard as I can to always do my best,” Monk said. “Hopefully I will be able to help the UCLA team make it to the top rankings of collegiate beach volleyball.”