121!!!! UCLA Men's Volleyball Captures NCAA Title
The Bruins defeated two-time defending champ Hawai'i to bring home the 20th title in program history.
While everyone is familiar with UCLA’s 11 basketball championships, it’s the men’s volleyball team which has brought home more national titles than any other sport in UCLA’s long-storied history. But the Bruins hadn’t won a title since 2006.
Seventeen years. That’s how long it’s been since the UCLA Bruins won an NCAA Men’s Volleyball title.
That drought is now over.
This afternoon, the top-seeded Bruins defeated one of the two teams who beat them during the regular season and they took home the 121st NCAA title in school history and the 20th NCAA title in the history of the program.
Sure, they had come close several times, most recently in 2018 when they fell to Long Beach State, 3-2, in the championship match. They just couldn’t get over that hump to win a title since legendary coach Al Scates won his last title. While head coach John Speraw had won two NCAA titles as a Bruin player for Scates, three more as an assistant coach for Scates, and three more while he was head coach at UC Irvine, he hadn’t been able to finish the job since returning to Westwood in 2012. That long wait is now also over.
Today’s victory did not come easy. The first two sets went into extra point overtime with the Bruins winning the first set 28-26 before dropping the second set, 33-31.
After losing just their fourth set since they lost their first matchup against the Rainbow Warriors, the Bruins came storming back to take the third set, 25-21. That left UCLA needing one more set to take home the title.
The fourth set was more of the same. UCLA built up a lead and it seemed inevitable that the Bruins were on their way to their 31st win of the season, the 20th title in program history and the 121st NCAA title in school history.
With the score 24-21, the Bruins seemed to have gotten the final point necessary to win the title and the players began to celebrate, but then Hawai’i challenged the call, because they thought there may have been a net violation by the Bruins.
After the replay was reviewed, the initial call stood and the celebration was on.
Ido David led all players with a season-high 23 kills. Senior outside hitter Alex Knight was also in double-digits with a career-high tying 15 kills and he was named the tournament’s Most Outstanding Player. Redshirt junior Merrick McHenry was the third Bruin in double-digits with 11 kills. Freshman Andrew Rowan had 60 assists. J.R. Norris IV finished the match with a .727 hitting percentage including five service aces.
GO BRUINS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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Thank you Joe & Dimitri for your coverage of all things Bruin. See you tomorrow for 122!
Go BRUINS!
Let’s get 122 tomorrow!