[Online Exclusive]: Men's volleyball sweeps Penn State for NCAA title

The comeback is complete. The most unthinkable turnaround in
men’s volleyball history was completed on Saturday when UCLA
won its record 19th NCAA title.

The No. 2-seeded Bruins started the season 12-12. But today won
their first NCAA title since 2000 and ended any questions about the
demise of their dynasty with a 30-27, 30-27, 30-27 sweep of Penn
State in front of a sold-out crowd of 5,453 at Penn State’s
Rec Hall.

The Bruins and the No. 4-seeded Nittany Lions had met four
previous times for the championship game, with the Bruins taking
three of those meetings.

Saturday was much the same, as the Bruins led throughout the
first game and came back from a 19-12 deficit in the second game to
take control of the match.

In that second game, redshirt freshman Jamie Diefenbach gave the
Bruins a boost off the bench with three kills and blocks to help
the Bruins come back.

After winning Game 2, the Bruins clinched the match in the third
game when redshirt senior Nick Scheftic slammed home a kill from
the middle blocker position.

With the victory, the Bruins improved to 19-6 all-time in NCAA
Championship matches and 7-1 all-time against the Nittany Lions in
Final Four competition.

More importantly, after losing last year in the championship
game at home against Pepperdine, Saturday’s match was perfect
retribution.

The players, junior opposite Steve Klosterman and redshirt
senior setter Dennis Gonzalez, who were ineffective in last
year’s championship game, led the Bruins on Saturday.

Klosterman led the Bruins with 14 kills and a .379 hitting
percentage, while Gonzalez won his final game as a Bruin with 37
assists and two kills of his own.

They were helped by redshirt senior Damien Scott, who had 12
kills, and Scheftic, who finished with eight.

Together, they helped the Bruins forget about the horrendous
start to this season and created a legacy for themselves as one the
most remarkable men’s volleyball teams to play at UCLA.

In fact, with 12 losses, the Bruins became the team with the
worst record ever to win a NCAA title.

UCLA’s athletic programs now have 98 total national
titles, the most of any university.