LONG BEACH, California — If it’s stuffed to capability Saturday when top-seeded UCLA performs No. 2 Lengthy Seashore State for the NCAA’s Nationwide Collegiate Males’s Volleyball Championship, the group in The Walter Pyramid may have about 10 instances the inhabitants of Meunster, Saskatchewan.
However Skyler Varga, the 6-foot-7 Lengthy Seashore sophomore reverse from that tiny Canadian village, can’t wait.
Extra on him and Meunster in a bit.
The 2 prime groups within the nation, who break up their regular-season non-conference matches, play at 2 p.m. Pacific, 5 p.m. Jap, on ESPN.
Sure, the primary set and perhaps a part of the second can be going up towards NCAA seashore volleyball on ESPN2 and towards the Kentucky Derby on NBC, nevertheless it’s an enormous TV step up for the lads’s sport. If what we anticipate can be a big-time battle ensues, new viewers who catch the latter phases of the match can be glad they did.
UCLA (25-5), the MPSF regular-season champion, misplaced within the MPSF last to Grand Canyon. The Bruins opened NCAA play Tuesday with a sweep of Fort Valley State after which Thursday got here away with a 22-25, 25-20, 25-16, 18-25, 15-12 victory over fourth-seeded UCI Irvine within the semifinals.
Lengthy Seashore State (27-2), the Large West regular-season and event champion, opened with a sweep of Belmont Abbey earlier than having to drag off a 24-26, 26-28, 25-18, 25-23, 15-10 semifinals reverse sweep of Grand Canyon.
“We all know it’s going to be a terrific match towards a terrific crew,” UCLA coach John Speraw stated, “and it’s going to be in a really loud, hostile atmosphere.”
Historical past, latest and means again
UCLA and Lengthy Seashore performed twice within the common season.
Lengthy Seashore received 25-22, 21-25, 25-27, 19-25 on February 9 in The Pyramid to enhance to 10-0 on the time. Sotiris Siapanis led Lengthy Seashore with 18 kills, Varga had 15, Clarke Godbold 12 and Simon Torwie had three kills and eight blocks. UCLA’s Ido David had 15 kills and Merrick McKenry had 11 to go together with six blocks.
The following evening, at UCLA’s Pauley Pavilion, the Bruins received 29-27, 27-29, 25-19, 25-20 as Lengthy Seashore took its first loss. 4 Bruins had 10 or extra kills, 16 by Grant Sloane. However Sloane injured his ankle in warmups Thursday, missed the UCI match and is almost definitely not going to play Saturday. Alex Knight had 14 kills and McHenry and Cooper Robinson 10 every. Godbold led Lengthy Seashore with 15 kills and Siapanis had 13.
“That was an excellent collection for us,” Lengthy Seashore libero Mason Briggs, who has 125,000 Instagram followers, stated. “… It helped propel us into the remainder of the season.”
Lengthy Seashore State received its first title in 1991 and didn’t win once more till it went again to again in 2018 and 2019. The Seashore was ranked No. 1 when the season was canceled in 2020. Coach Alan Knipe’s crew misplaced within the 2022 last to Hawai’i. Knipe received the title as a participant at Lengthy Seashore in 1991 when the coach was Ray Ratelle.
UCLA, which received all of it final yr for the primary time since 2006, beforehand received titles below Al Scates in 1970-72, ’74, ’75, ’76, ’79, 1981-84, 1987, 1989, 1993, 1995, ’96, ’98, 2000 and 2006. UCLA coach John Speraw, who performed on the 1993 and ’95 groups, received because the coach at UC Irvine in 2009 and 2012 earlier than main the Bruins to the championship final yr.
That is the primary time in NCAA historical past that the ultimate has two coaches who’ve received all of it at their alma maters as a participant and as a head coach. What’s extra, Knipe was the USA Olympic coach in 2012 and Speraw is beginning his third Olympic quad since taking up in 2016.
And Saturday marks 50 years to the day (Could 4, 1974) when UCLA grew to become the primary street crew to ever win a NCAA title match (UCLA received at residence in 1970, 1971 and San Diego State at residence in 1973). The Bruins rallied from being down 6-1 in set 5 to upset UC Santa Barbara in Rob Gymnasium with Frank Gifford because the ABC play-by-play announcer.
Meunster, eh
Meunster, inhabitants 400, is about 75 miles west of Saskatoon. the following “greatest” metropolis.
“5 streets, no stoplights. Final week, I used to be having a chat with one in all our teammates and there’s like 9 complete outlets on Railroad Road. Yeah, there’s not a lot to it.”
Really, we appeared it up and it’s Railway Road, however, for perspective, Meunster is about 867 northwest of Minneapolis and 459 miles east of Calgary, Alberta.
It’s tiny and distant.
Had been there sufficient folks to play volleyball?
“Nearly. Sufficient folks to type a highschool crew. My membership crew (Meunster Volleyball Membership) was individuals who have been from round that space and joined. You form of needed to ask folks to play volleyball. Any sport in that space you wanted everyone from every sport to affix your crew with the intention to play. It’s a fairly completely different expertise than locations out right here.”
His older brothers, Devin and Lyndon, each performed volleyball on the Canadian school College of Alberta Augustana, the place Devin is now the pinnacle coach, and Lyndon performs professionally, this previous season in Germany. That space can also be the house of Gavin Schmitt, the Canadian nice who’s from Saskatoon and had an extended professional profession, together with the 2016 Olympics.
Varga performed a season on the College of Saskatchewan earlier than transferring to Lengthy Seashore. However his first season in 2023 lasted simply two matches earlier than he was misplaced to a knee harm.
Thursday, Varga had a career-high 20 kills towards GCU and had an ace, 5 blocks and eight digs. He’s second to Siapanis on the crew with 272 kills (2.99/set) and is second to Torwie in blocks with 82.
The ties that bind
UCLA senior outdoors Alex Knight is from Culver Metropolis, California, and performed at Pacifica Christian Excessive Faculty. He grew up enjoying with Lengthy Seashore senior outdoors Clarke Godbold, who’s from San Pedro and performed at Palos Verdes Peninsula Excessive.
Knight has additionally been a teammate of Lengthy Seashore’s Briggs on USA nationwide groups.
“It’s tremendous enjoyable how lengthy we’ve performed towards one another and with one another,” Knight stated. “It is a tremendous cool likelihood to play one another yet another time in the US. We’re wanting ahead to it and it’s going to be a enjoyable matchup and it at all times has been a enjoyable matchup.”
There are many different ties between the 2 groups, however for the Bruins, UCLA sophomore Cooper Robinson and freshman center Spencer Graves are each from Pacific Palisades and went to Loyola Excessive Faculty.
And, after all, Speraw and Knipe have coached towards one another so many instances they will’t think about and Speraw was one in all Knipe’s USA assistants in London for the 2012 Olympics.