UCLA Men’s Volleyball Looks for National Championship #121
The Bruins will play the Hawai’i Rainbow Warriors this afternoon with a national title going to the winner.
In this morning’s beach volleyball article, I wrote: “There are three sports seasons at UCLA. There’s football season. There’s basketball season. Then, there’s championship season. That’s the season we’re in right now. Of course, sometimes, basketball season starts off championship season, but it’s currently volleyball championship weekend with the NCAA Beach Volleyball Championship taking place all weekend and the NCAA Men’s Volleyball Championship Game being played this afternoon.”
Well, it’s almost time for a Bruin team to go after national championship #121, but to bring that natty home, UCLA will have to defeat the two-time defending champion Hawai’i Rainbow Warriors.
It’s been a phenomenal season for the UCLA men’s volleyball team. In fact, it’s been such a good season that head coach John Speraw was named the AVCA national coach of the year recently. Overall, the team is 30-2 coming into today’s championship match against the Rainbow Warriors. In fact, the Bruins’ only losses came against Penn State and Hawai’i. But that loss to Hawai’i came all the way back on March 11 and it was on Hawai’i’s home court.
Since then, the Bruins have won 11 straight matches. In fact, in those matches, UCLA has lost just three sets. Overall, the Bruins are 33-3 in sets over the past two months since that loss.
Hawai’i, meanwhile, has won their last 12 matches after losing to Long Beach State in the match right after they beat the Bruins. The Rainbow Warriors’ only other loss this season came against the Penn State Nittany Lions the day before they played the Bruins.
Coincidentally, the Bruins got to today’s championship match by sweeping Long Beach State on Thursday while Hawai’i went the distance against Penn State to eliminate the only team that had beaten both top seeds in the tournament.
Against Long Beach State, UCLA was led by outside hitters Ido David and Ethan Champlain, who had 17 kills and 14 kills, respectively, while freshman setter Andrew Rowan recorded 40 assists.
The Rainbow Warriors were led by junior Dimitrios Mouchlias, who had 25 kills against Penn State. Junior Chaz Galloway added 11 kills and was the only other Hawai’i player with double-digit kills. Senior setter Jakob Thelle led the team with 42 assists.
Today’s championship match is scheduled to be broadcast on ESPN2 beginning at 2:00 pm PT, but given that the NCAA Beach Volleyball tournament matches are already running long, you may want to expect the men’s volleyball match to start airing on ESPNews (or another ESPN channel).
This is your UCLA men’s volleyball national championship open thread.
NCAA Men’s Volleyball National Championship
Teams: #1 seed UCLA Bruins (30-2) vs. #2 seed Hawai’i Rainbow Warriors (29-2)
Scheduled Time: Saturday, May 6, 2023, 2:00 pm PT
Where: Eagle Bank Arena, Fairfax, VA
TV: ESPN2 with Paul Sunderland and Kevin Barnett
Live Stream: WatchESPN.com and the ESPN app
Match Notes:
Go Bruins!!! Bring home NC #121!
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What a great day for UCLA men’s volleyball! There were so many amazing individual performances, but it was the team’s execution of the fundamentals—passing and blocking, in particular—that was the key to beating a very strong, experienced Hawai’i squad. David and Knight will be lauded for their attacking productivity, but libero Troy Gooch was consistently outstanding and Norris was a gem off the bench. Freshman setter Andrew Rowan was not at his very best, but he was still very good and played with incredible poise. McHenry didn’t dominate but he got stronger in the later stages of the match. Everyone understood their role and did their part, and as I said after the semifinal win, this team is greater than the sun of its parts.
This team is not finished. It will be here again next year. This is a truly special team—a team, a season, and a national championship for Bruins fans to treasure.
Go BRUINS!
Congrats Bruins!