As Jesse Dueck was completing her stellar first chapter of college beach volleyball – which she’d ultimately punctuate with a massive exclamation point – her older cousin Peyton closed the book on her own storied career.
The Duecks’ respective teams crossed paths earlier this month in the quarterfinals of the NCAA championships in Alabama. Jesse, a Soquel High graduate, was part of a No. 3-seeded UCLA squad that dispatched Peyton, an Aptos alum, and sixth-seeded Cal Poly San Luis Obispo en route to capturing the Bruins’ first national title since 2019.
“When the brackets came out, I saw (the first-round matchups) and thought, ‘What are the chances we’d play UCLA?’” said Peyton, whose second appearance with Cal Poly at the NCAA’s premier beach volleyball tournament bookended three seasons of indoor volleyball at the university her cousin now attends.
“Playing UCLA was so much fun. It was definitely such a cool opportunity – you don’t see family faceoffs like that all that much.”
Jesse felt the same way – though as with Peyton, the freshman’s focus was on winning, not a family reunion.
“I’m going to treat it as I would every other game, with the same end goal – winning a national championship,” Jesse said before the tournament. “If it happens, I’ll appreciate how far we’ve come as Duecks who’ve been blessed to compete at the same level.”
Competing in beach volleyball at the NCAA Division I level, in fact, has become a bit of a tradition for the women of the Dueck family. Peyton’s older sister Madison started it, playing at Cal from 2017-20. Jesse’s older sister Cameron spent a season on Pepperdine’s roster in 2021.
There’s another Dueck in the pipeline, too: Peyton’s younger sister Ella, a junior at Aptos High, has committed to following in Peyton’s footsteps at Cal Poly.
To be clear, Jesse and Peyton didn’t face each other directly at the NCAA championships: Jesse and partner Ava Williamson competed at the Bruins’ No. 4 spot, while Peyton and Cal Poly teammate Katie Clevenger comprised the Mustangs’ No. 5 pairing.
After dropping their first set 17-21, Jesse and Williamson took the second 21-18 to force a third and final set they never got to play, as the Bruins clinched the third point – out of five – they needed to advance before they could. Peyton and Clevenger, meanwhile, fell in straight sets – albeit by the narrowest of margins, 22-20 and 23-21.
UCLA (34-6) went on to defeat Texas – which handed the Bruins three of their six losses, one of which came in the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation final – 3-2 in the semis. The Bruins then upset top-seeded Stanford 3-0 in the national final.
Jesse and Williamson finished off their opponents against both Texas and Stanford. They were the first Bruins duo to secure a victory – and hence, their team’s first point – against the Longhorns and the second to do so against the Cardinal.
“Their wins were huge,” UCLA coach Jenny Johnson Jordan said. “We have a joke within our team: They tend to like to go three – they tend to not get done in two.
“But when the announcements were made that our team on the fourth court had clinched, that gave more momentum to our other teams that were competing.”
Jesse finished her first season 16-2, with all but five of her wins coming with Williamson by her side.
Her role is primarily defensive – essentially, the beach volleyball equivalent of a libero in the indoor game – whereas Williamson handles more of the duo’s offensive duties.
“Her ability to read defenses is something that can’t be taught,” Jordan said of Jesse. “Her instincts as a defender allow her to go and make saves and digs that are unexpected. She has the potential to get any ball.”
Peyton stuck around to watch Jesse after Cal Poly fell in the quarterfinals. Despite losing to her younger cousin’s team, Peyton expressed not even a hint of envy – in fact, when discussing Jesse’s accomplishment, the graduate student’s voice bubbled over with joy.
“She played so confident and so free,” Peyton said. “I knew from the first moment that she and her partner Ava would control the whole game.
“On the big stage, she just balled out. Her hard work before UCLA and at UCLA really showed.”
For her part, Jesse drew plenty of inspiration from Peyton, whose college career began when Jesse had just started high school.
“I watched her on TV at UCLA and Cal Poly a lot,” Jesse said.
Though Jesse frequently flew down to Southern California to train in preparation for college volleyball, her training schedule never allowed her to go watch Peyton in person. The closest she came was in four meetings against Cal Poly this season – each of which UCLA won. In three of those, Jesse and Peyton played simultaneously.
Jesse and Peyton weren’t the only players to represent Santa Cruz County at the NCAA championships: Santa Cruz High grad Marilu Pally, a senior at Cal, helped the Golden Bears reach the tournament, where they defeated Long Beach State 3-2 in the opening round before succumbing to archrival Stanford in the quarterfinals. Pally was part of Cal’s No. 2 tandem along with Grace Hong.
Jesse and Peyton each had at least one teammate from Santa Cruz County. In Jesse’s case, it was redshirt sophomore Hannah Fleming, a Santa Cruz High graduate who went 1-1 for UCLA but played an even bigger role behind the scenes, according to Jesse.
“She’s always super down to get extra reps and always pushing people to get extra drills done,” Jesse said. “Her desire to put in extra work rubs off on all of us.”
Peyton, meanwhile, had two teammates from her home region at Cal Poly: Redshirt sophomore Faith Bartlett (St. Abraham’s Classical Christian Academy) won alongside Perry Quinn in the only match in which she competed, while redshirt freshman Sadie Jeffrey (Santa Cruz High) was also on the Mustangs’ roster.
Pally posted a 71-34 record in four seasons at Cal, finishing 18-11 this season. Peyton went 37-14 in two seasons at Cal Poly, going 14-8 this season.
A business economics major, Jesse is considering switching to neuroscience. Peyton, meanwhile, was wrapping up a graduate degree in fire protection engineering as of this writing.
Peyton plans to pursue a career as a fire investigator or inspector. Though the two-time Big West Conference champion – who also won four conference Defensive Player of the Week awards as a freshman libero with the Mustangs’ indoor women’s volleyball team back in 2021 – won’t be going pro in beach volleyball, she does plan to play in tournaments with her big sister Madison.
For now, though, Peyton is expecting big things from Jesse over the next three seasons.
“I’m so proud of my cousin,” Peyton said. “She worked hard and was so deserving.
“To be able to watch her and cheer her on while being on her side was an amazing experience. I’m lucky to have been here and seen it.”
COUNTY CONNECTIONS
County Connections runs every other Thursday during the academic school year. If you have an update on a local college athlete, email Ray Hacke at raydhackelaw@gmail.com.
