Staff Directory

Stein Metzger

Title:
Head Coach, Beach Volleyball

THE METZGER FILE

PERSONAL INFORMATION

Full Name: Stein Metzger
Born: Nov. 17, 1972
Hometown: Honolulu, Hawai'i
Education: UCLA, 1996 (B.A. Environmental Studies)
Wife: Emily Metzger
Children: Quinn, Otto

COACHING EXPERIENCE

2013-23: Head Coach, UCLA
2024-Pres.: Head Coach, Texas

COACHING HONORS

2017: Pac-12 Coach of the Year
2017: AVCA National Coach of the Year
2018: Pac-12 Coach of the Year
2018: AVCA National Coach of the Year
2023: Pac-12 Coach of the Year
2025: CCSA Co-Coach of the Year
2026: MPSF Coach of the Year
2026: AVCA National Coach of the Year

DOMESTIC PLAYING EXPERIENCE

1993-96: UCLA
1996-2000: AVP Tour
2000: USAV
2001: AVP Tour
2001: BVA
2002-12: AVP Tour

INTERNATIONAL PLAYING EXPERIENCE

1998-2007: FIVB

PLAYING HONORS

1995: NCAA All-Tournament Team
1995: AVCA First-Team All-America
1995: ASICS/Volleyball Magazine All-America
1996: NCAA All-Tournament Team
1996: AVCA First-Team All-America
1996: ASICS/Volleyball Magazine All-America
1996: Pac-10 First Team All-Conference
1996: AVCA Co-Player of the Year

YEAR-BY-YEAR RECORD

2013: 3-7
2014: 7-8
2015: 10-5
2016: 22-8, NCAA Championship (3rd)
2017: 30-6, NCAA Championship (T-5th)
2018 40-4, NCAA Championship (1st)
2019: 35-3, NCAA Championship (1st)
2020: 13-2 (COVID-19)
2021: 32-5, NCAA Championship (2nd)
2022: 34-9, NCAA Championship (3rd)
2023: 40-4, NCAA Championship (2nd)
UCLA Total (11 Years): 266-61 (.813)
2024: 7-8
2025: 28-10, NCAA Championship (T-5th)
2026: 28-7, NCAA Championship (T-3rd)
Texas Total (3 Years): 63-25 (.716)
Total (14 Years): 329-86 (.793)

Stein Metzger has transformed Texas Beach Volleyball into one of the nation’s premier programs in just three seasons. A three-time AVCA Beach Volleyball Coach of the Year, Metzger has guided the Longhorns to two conference championships, two NCAA Championship appearances and the first NCAA Championship semifinal appearance in program history.

Texas reached new heights in 2026, winning the MPSF Championship Tournament, inlcuding two victories over top-ranked UCLA, before advancing to the NCAA Championship semifinals for the first time in program history. The Longhorns finished with a program-best 28-7 record as Metzger earned both AVCA Beach Coach of the Year and MPSF Coach of the Year honors. Brecht Piersma and Katie Hashman became the first AVCA Collegiate Beach All-Americans in program history and were named the MPSF Championship Tournament Most Valuable Pair. Texas placed six student-athletes on the All-MPSF Team, including first-team selections Piersma, Hashman and Anna Pavelkova, while Kacka Pavelkova, Emma Grace Robertson and Lily Davis earned second-team honors. Anna Pavelkova, Kacka Pavelkova and Davis were also named to the MPSF All-Freshman Team, and Piersma, Hashman, Macey Butler and Karin Zolnercikova earned MPSF All-Tournament Team recognition.

Metzger guided a breakthrough season in 2025 as Texas posted a 28-10 record, captured the CCSA Championship and earned the program’s first NCAA Championship berth in the program’s first season of postseason eligibility. The Longhorns defeated Cal in the opening round of the championship before falling to eventual national champion TCU in the quarterfinals. Metzger was named CCSA Co-Coach of the Year, while the No. 2 pair of Katie Hashman and Emma Grace Robertson and the No. 3 pair of Maddison Parmelly and Karin Zolnercikova earned All-CCSA honors. Freshmen Eva Liisa Kuivonen and Noah Sonneville were named to the CCSA All-Freshman Team.

In his first season in Austin in 2024, Metzger guided the Longhorns to 7-8 record, closing the year with the program’s first victory over a nationally ranked opponent with a 4-1 win over No. 20 Texas A&M-Corpus Christi in the season finale, laying the foundation for Texas’ rapid ascent on the national stage.

Metzger arrived at Texas after building UCLA into one of the nation’s premier beach volleyball programs. A three-time NCAA Volleyball Champion and two-time All-American as a player at UCLA, as well as a highly-successful professional beach player and U.S. Olympian, Metzger led the Bruins’ beach program from its inaugural season in 2013 through the 2023 campaign. During his 11 seasons at the helm, he guided UCLA to two NCAA Championships (2018, 2019), four NCAA Championship match appearances (2018, 2019, 2021, 2023), three Pac-12 Championships (2018, 2021, 2023) and a 266-61 (.813) overall record. He was named Pac-12 Coach of the Year in 2017, 2018 and 2023 and AVCA National Coach of the Year in 2017 and 2018.

In his 11th and final season at UCLA in 2023, he led the Bruins to a Pac-12 title and NCAA runner-up finish. UCLA's 40 wins on the year tied the Bruins, Pac-12 and NCAA record that Metzger's national championship squad set in 2018. The Bruins were 7-0 in conference play and only a thrilling 3-2 defeat to USC, who UCLA was 3-1 against on the season, separated them from a third NCAA crown. He helped the court one pair of Maggie Boyd and Lexy Denaburg earn AVCA first-team All-America recognition, the third straight first-team honor for Denaburg. The court two duo of Abby Van Winkle and Peri Brennan earned second-team accolades, matching the most All-Americans in a season in school history and marking the second time the Bruins achieved that feat in the last four seasons.

In 2022, UCLA was Pac-12 runners-up, came up one victory short of advancing the NCAA title match and posted a 34-9 record. Court one tandem Savvy Simo and Denaburg earned AVCA first-team All-America honors on the season. The 2021 squad won the Pac-12 Championship and finished as NCAA runners-up with a 32-5 record, including a 10-0 conference mark. The court one pair of Van Winkle and Denaburg were AVCA first-team All-Americans. That year also was memorable as Metzger produced his first Olympian in 2021 when Sarah Sponcil qualified for the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games.

The Bruins' three losses in 2019 were all to USC by a score of 3-2. 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 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 earn first-team All-America honors all four years.

UCLA also won a school-record 31 consecutive duals during the 2018 campaign and claimed 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.

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 changes in 2015, when UCLA announced that Metzger would transition from his duties as assistant indoor coach to focus solely on beach. In addition, the Pac-12 Conference announced during the summer of 2015 that beach volleyball would become a Pac-12 sponsored sport and host a championship effective the 2016 season. Additionally, the NCAA officially sponsored its first national championship in 2016.

Metzger has guided UCLA Beach Volleyball since its inaugural season in the spring of 2013. Debuting the sand team 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 that first year, 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, led the program to 20 dual wins (10 in 2015) and coached three sets of pairs' teams to the AVCA National Championships, including Zoë Nightingale and Kamila Tan in 2015. In the first two years, members of the Bruin indoor team populated the beach roster, but the 2015 campaign brought the first-ever sand-only players.

A standout on the Bruin men's team from 1993-96 who won three National Championships and twice earned All-American honors, he returned to his alma mater as an assistant women's indoor coach in 2012 under current head coach Michael Sealy after a lengthy pro beach volleyball career. Metzger and Sealy were teammates on the 1993 national title-winning squad, and ranks second all-time in UCLA history in assists (5,158) and sixth in aces (110). He went on to win two more National Championships in 1995 and 1996, getting named to the NCAA All-Tournament Team both times. He earned AVCA First-Team All-America honors both seasons, while earning AVCA Co-Player of the Year along with conference player of the year accolades as a team captain during his senior campaign. The future coach was also named to the all-conference team three times, including First Team in 1996.

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 (2005) and Lambert (2006), 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 2002, as well as a Bronze medal at the 2001 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, he was inducted into the UCLA Athletics Hall of Fame in 2009. Metzger and his wife, Emily, have a daughter, Quinn, and son, Otto.