The endearing dichotomy of Lexy Denaburg, UCLA’s leader by example

HERMOSA BEACH, Calif. — It’s the dichotomy that gets you.

Lexy Denaburg paints a striking picture. A tanned 6-foot frame is outlined by lean, rippling muscle. She plays beach volleyball with power that is decidedly uncommon, to the point that the most-oft used descriptor of her game is “beast.” That is, in fact, the first word Savvy Simo used when introducing Denaburg on SANDCAST, and it is meant as the highest form of athletic compliment. She’s physical and athletic enough to win at the NCAA and AVP level as both a blocker and defender. She is at once a coach’s dream and confounding puzzle piece, because when you have a piece that can fit anywhere you put it… where in the world do you put it?

Court 1 is the short answer.

That’s where Denaburg has played for UCLA the previous two seasons, piling up 58 wins and just 19 losses. She won as both a blocker, for Lea Monkhouse, and a defender, for Abby Van Winkle. Last March, she was responsible for the only loss handed to Tina Graudina and Hailey Harward, a pair who would go on to win an AVP later that summer.

But then you listen to her speak, and you see the grace and humility with which she carries herself, and you realize that you’ve got it all wrong. Microphones have to be turned up to capture her soft-spoken thoughts. Once so wracked with nerves before a match against TCU in the NCAA Championships, she nearly began to cry. Off the court, she is goofy, so much so that when Kelli Greene-Agnew, a transfer from LSU who had watched Denaburg’s rise as a Bruin, could hardly believe it.

“She goes up to me and says ‘Oh my gosh, you’re like a 5-year-old,’ ” Denaburg recalled on SANDCAST: Beach Volleyball with Tri Bourne and Travis Mewhirter. And again, it’s important to note that Greene-Agnew meant that as a supreme compliment. For here is a 21-year-old whose only vice is that she tends to lift too many weights, making her vulnerable to overuse injuries, with the physique to suggest it, and yet she is as playful and lovely as a child.

“It’s bounce a ball, scream in my face, and then she goes ‘Oh hey, I miss you!’ ” Savvy Simo said with a laugh.

It’s endearing, that dichotomy, one that has her as the face of this 2023 UCLA team.

They were partners once, Simo and Denaburg. Both in the weight room and on the court. Went 28-8 on court one and finished the season as First-Team…