LONG BEACH, Calif. — Zach Lama and UCLA weren't going to give Long Beach State another chance at an upset.
The Phoenix sophomore had three kills in UCLA's final five points of the fourth set as the Bruins won 25-21, 25-20, 27-29, 25-21 Saturday in NCAA National Collegiate Men's Volleyball. I decided everything. Championship.
Not only did UCLA repeat as national champions, it ended a season in which coach John Spero compared the team to sewer rats. Before we get into the specifics of the match, it's worth asking.
“You're at a bit of a risk when you play at UCLA because your head coach majored in microbiology and genetics. And his favorite class as an undergrad was immunology. And , it turns out that the sewer rat's immune system is amazing, and the little creature runs around in a bunch of mud, and you know what? It turns out it doesn't bother them. They have no allergies and can eat as much peanut as they want, because their immune system is conditioned to what really matters. You can do anything.”
This is what was actually said in a press conference after the team won the national title.
“So I told them that life has challenges and stress. Stress makes you feel good. When you lift weights in the weight room, what do you do? When you tear it apart, it rebuilds itself stronger than before. Evolution is a function of environmental stress. Adaptations and changes occur in our genome. Our immune systems develop in specific ways based on exposure to pathogens, etc. And this theme continues to be taken up in the fields of biology, life, and psychology as well.
“So we talked, and one day I randomly told them about it, and I told them that what we want to be is a bunch of sewer rats. I want to lay low and just come out on the other side and not worry about things that don't matter. And I think that's probably the appropriate term for today's story.”
And Saturday's ultimate sewer rat may have been Rama. He played in the first three sets but barely touched the ball. He had one error and no hits in his first four swings. Then, late in the fourth, Sperrow replaced Cooper Robinson, who not only had 12 kills but also led UCLA with a .417 batting average for the game.
“It had to be done,” Spero said.
The match was tied at 20 when Rama got the first kill. He led his team 22-20. After his teammate Merrick McHenry missed a serve, Rama attacked again.
“Rama came and saved the day,” Spero said.
After two hitting errors in Long Beach, UCLA celebrated.
“All I can say is I'm really grateful to John Spero for trusting me and putting me in there,” Rama said. “Cop had a great game, but we both bring great things to the volleyball table and are always ready to make plays.”
Rama, who was a pretty good high school basketball player, had a top offer from Pepperdine.
Sperrow pointed out how deep his roster is and how demanding playing time is. “But all of us here and the only thing we all had was the trust that he was going to come in and make it happen. But he came with great energy. He's unfazed and we know that. And we know what he can be like. I know what it could be, and I had no doubts. I knew it would be Rama's time this weekend, and it was.”
UCLA, the top seed in the MPSF, dominated Fort Valley State in the quarterfinals and defeated the University of California, Irvine in five games in the semifinals on Thursday, finishing the season with a 26-5 record. It was UCLA's 21st title and its 19th and first under coach Al Scates, who replaced Sperrow on Saturday and coached for 50 years.
“It's hard to sum up a game like this because there were so many different storylines that played out at different points in the game,” Spero said.
Ethan Champion led UCLA with 15 kills, two assists, four digs, six blocks and one solo. Champlin was overcome with emotion after his victory.
“There's a phrase that says you can give all but give some and some can give all. I had nothing left to concede the fourth set. I was doing my best but my head was spinning and my legs were spinning. I didn't have any feeling,'' said Champlin, a senior at Oceanside University, but still managed nine no-miss swings in the fourth set, as well as three kills with a dig and a block. “If we had gone to five games, we probably wouldn’t have done very well.”
He stopped and choked again.
“It means a lot to be here with these guys.”
Robinson had 12 kills, a .417 batting average, two assists, one ace, two digs and three blocks. Merrick McHenry had a near-perfect performance, as he has all season, with 10 kills and one error on 11 attempts, an ace, five digs, and five blocks. Ido David had nine kills, one assist, three aces, eight digs and four blocks. Guy Genis had four kills, one error, four digs and four blocks in nine attempts.
Setter Andrew Rowan had 46 assists, one ace, three digs and two blocks. His team had a batting average of .297, six service aces, and 21 service errors.
Spero now has four titles as a coach, two at UC Irvine (2009, 2012), two at his alma mater and two more as a player (1993, 1995). There is.
Second-seeded Big West State Long Beach defeated Belmont Abbey in the quarterfinals and had a come-from-behind victory over Grand Canyon to finish 27-3.
Long Beach State coach Alan Kneipp, who won titles in 2018 and 2019 and lost in the 2022 national championship game, said the game was a great opportunity for “a lot of people who don't usually watch volleyball to watch volleyball in 2018. “We showed it to audiences across the country in 2019.” What is ESPN Men's Volleyball and what does it look like?
“We had a really good season with two really, really good teams and a lot of talented players.”
Sotiris Siapanis led Long Beach with 12 kills, but hit .161 with one ace and four errors. He had five digs and two blocks. Skyler Varga had 11 kills, but five digs and he had 10 errors. Clark Godbold appeared in the second set with nine kills, one ace, five digs and one solo. Simon Towie had eight kills, two aces, two digs and three blocks on 14 errorless attacks. Dearis McRaven had four kills on eight errorless attacks and added a dig, six blocks and one solo.
Setter Aidan Kneipp had 38 assists, eight digs and four blocks. His team had a batting average of .214 with four service aces and 19 errors.
“We just didn't have enough time,” Kneipp said. “There's no way around it. Credit to UCLA.”
A gallery of photographer Jim Wolfe's best shots will be posted on Sunday.