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The UCLA men’s volleyball team huddles during a game against BYU in January, which they los

It was one of those moments that tested the character of a team and ultimately defined a season.

If the Bruins had given up, the season would have been lost. But if they could summon the will to succeed, the team would be able to look to that moment as the turning point in the season.

The UCLA men’s volleyball team was down 0-2 against USC on March 17 and had lost its three previous matches, falling to 5-10 in Mountain Pacific Sports Federation (MPSF) play.

The Bruins would likely fall out of reach of the MPSF playoffs with another loss. But they were not ready to let their season slip away, and came out of the break with a determination the Trojans were powerless to counter, dominating the next three games and taking a 3-2 victory.

The win over USC was only the beginning. The Bruins’ drive to succeed never abated, and the team went on to win 14 consecutive matches to blaze through the playoffs and win the NCAA Championship.

“We knew we had to win the ’SC match just to get in the playoffs, and that if we could come back from being down 0-2, it would be the turning point of the season,” UCLA coach Al Scates said.

Coming back from a 12-12 record to stun the volleyball world by winning the national championship makes this season one to remember.

“No team has ever turned their season around like we did,” Scates said. “This is a very special championship because we went from having a 5-10 record in league to winning a national championship.”

Not only did the Bruins add UCLA’s 19th NCAA Volleyball Championship title, but they also overcame challenges of inexperience and injury with tenacity.

This season’s Bruin squad had only one returning starter from last year’s NCAA second-place team. Moreover, junior Steve Klosterman, a top Bruin player, spent much of the season recovering from a shoulder surgery last summer, and redshirt senior setter Dennis Gonzalez missed time with an ankle injury.

The Bruins never gave up, and are an example of what can be achieved with a resilient attitude.

“When people think of this season, I want them to remember that it was a team that never gave up and came from behind to win a national title,” redshirt senior Damien Scott said. “We upheld the tradition of UCLA sports and achieved our goal despite all the obstacles we faced.”

The Bruins ran the gauntlet of the postseason in the most difficult way possible, facing the top teams of each round due to their low seeding.

“We were playing the best teams and knew that we could not lose again. But we also knew we could beat any team in the country,” Scott said. “We focused on our goal of winning the title and just had fun.”

While the Bruin winning streak to close out the season was impressive, to some it was also anticlimactic.

When UCLA swept Penn State to claim the title, many players felt they still had room to improve.

“It was great to win, but it was also a little sad because we could have gotten even better,” Klosterman said. “Our team was just starting to gel and then the season ended. By the end of the year, we knew that there was no team that had a chance of beating us.”

It is easy to reflect on the feat accomplished by the volleyball team now that the season is over.

“The team could have given up on the season so many times, but we never did that,” Scates said. “The players believed in the goal of winning it all, and kept working hard. They had an incredible motivation to succeed, and that is something you can’t teach.”