LOS ANGELES — Alfee Reft has accepted the UCLA women's volleyball head coaching position, as announced on Monday morning by Bruins Director of Athletics Martin Jarmond, USD Associate Vice President / Executive Director of Athletics Bill McGillis, and San Diego volleyball head coach Jennifer Petrie.

Reft had served as the Toreros' associate head coach since the spring of 2020.

"I am excited to announce and support the selection of Alfee Reft as the new Head Volleyball Coach at UCLA," Petrie said on Monday. "The athletic department could not have chosen a better person to lead their program."

Reft, a native of Oxnard, California, was a first-team AVCA All-American and the Asics/Volleyball Magazine Defensive Player of the Year in 2005 at Hawaii, and played professional volleyball internationally for seven seasons. In 2008, he was an alternate for the US Men's Olympic Team that won the Gold Medal in Beijing.

He joined USD after beginning his coaching career at Minnesota and Illinois. His time with the Toreros saw the program achieve a 64-15 (.810) total record, with San Diego reaching the NCAA Tournament in each of his three seasons in Alcala Park.

Reft helped USD complete the most successful season in program history in 2022, playing a key role under Petrie (the 2022 AVCA National Coach of the Year) as the Toreros went 31-2 (18-0 WCC) and reached their first Final Four ever. Under Petrie and Reft's guidance, San Diego players took home the 2022 WCC Player, Setter, and Libero of the Year awards alongside three AVCA All-Americans selections that included USD's second First-Team honoree ever. During a planned absence for Petrie on October 6 and 8, he steered the Toreros to a pair of sweeps over conference foes San Francisco and Santa Clara as USD's acting head coach.

"Alfee is a brilliant volleyball mind with a charismatic personality that is sure to bring UCLA volleyball to national prominence," Petrie added. "UCLA volleyball players, fans, alumni and the entire University are in for spectacular success with Alfee Reft at the helm."

A national search for San Diego's next associate head coach is underway.