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UCLA men’s volleyball’s skyrocketing social media presence: highlight reels, edits

By Sid Francis / Daily Bruin

By Amelie Ionescu

April 28, 2024 12:24 p.m.

This post was updated April 28 at 10:18 p.m.

Every story has two faces.

Janus. Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.

After a match, Cooper Robinson is swarmed by fans, friends and family, congratulating the redshirt sophomore outside hitter on a job well done.

But for Holly Wong, better known as @hykchora or @hykchora.jpg, the work is just getting started.

Identifying which part of the match will make the best cut for social media, which player to highlight and which photos look best takes hours of meticulous planning and editing post-game. And yet the time doesn’t deter her from putting out content almost daily, typically highlighting UCLA men’s volleyball among other collegiate programs.

“It’s great for our team, and then it’s great for the sport,” said sophomore setter Andrew Rowan. “It’s amazing for bringing in people who have never watched volleyball, and maybe they come to a game or they watch it on TV, so we’re all getting the numbers up.”

Wong’s TikTok account – which she started in early 2020 while managing the San Marino high school boy’s volleyball team – has blossomed into an account that appears on many For You pages. It touts several videos with over a million views – two of them eclipsing 10 million – and over 28 million likes across the account.

@hykchora first in the MPSF? we’re like that 🤧 @UCLA Men’s Volleyball #fyp #volleyball #volleyballworld #clubvolleyballcheck #volleyballplayer #mensvolleyball #haikyuu #uclavolleyball ♬ K DOT LIKE THAT – Stank Music

The third-year videographer’s talents have landed her about 280,000 followers on TikTok and 35,700 on Instagram, where she’ll post similar highlight reels and sneak peeks into works in progress on her story.

Pinned to the top of her TikTok page, Wong’s most viral video is of Long Beach State’s men’s volleyball players, where she was a media intern for two years before departing for personal reasons.

“I have learned so many valuable lessons, made connections with so many amazing people,” Wong stated on her Instagram. “To the team, thank you for creating a space for me to feel welcome and like a part of the family.”

She later rerouted up the 405 to Westwood and has worked with UCLA since.

The Pasadena City College student may be a driving force behind the Bruins’ increased social media presence, but the official TikTok account is also pulling its weight. With a viral video of senior outside hitter Ethan Champlin jumping over a table sitting at 6.3 million views, the @UCLAMVB TikTok account has skyrocketed in popularity since December 2020 and provides a consistent stream of content that highlights the players outside the court, hops on various trends and showcases parts of practice.

Posted during the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic, the most popular video on the page features then-redshirt freshman middle blocker Merrick McHenry and then-sophomore outside hitter Alex Knight dancing in masks with cardboard fans in the stands after a win during the 2021 season.

Fans of UCLA men’s volleyball cheer in the stands during a game. The team’s TikTok presence has skyrocketed, helping it gain thousands of supporters. (Jeremy Chen/Photo editor)

The account’s content has since shifted to include question and answer style conversations with the players, with a few recent ones displaying hits such as asking players, “what’s up brother?” and “highlight reel.”

While the former is a popular trend on the app, the latter offers fans match bloopers.

“We’re just volleyball players from the outside,” Robinson said. “But when we film those videos, you get to know us a little better and see our personality shine through.”

Robinson’s charisma has landed him in the spotlight, with his animated nature revealed in Mic’d Up presented by Jersey Mike’s and featured on The Den’s TikTok series, “Real Questions,” where he reaffirmed his enjoyment of the nickname Coop.

Coach John Speraw’s offensive stalwart’s Instagram has surged thousands of followers since the season began. Nevertheless, he said practices are tougher than just filming videos.

“It’s not all fun and games all the time, we actually do work very hard,” Robinson said. “Although it might look like we have a party every practice, it’s not the same, but we show a very positive side in our TikTok which is cool and fun.”

As a whole, UCLA men’s volleyball’s presence on the app has increased exponentially.

And the trend has gone from coast to coast – Pennsylvania women’s volleyball referenced the viral phenomenon in the caption of an early April TikTok video, and various creators have gained hundreds of thousands of likes for explicitly stating how much they wished to attend UCLA to meet the team.

Wong’s most recent work features compilations of various moments from the MPSF tournament. A recent edit of Robinson, which garnered over 20,000 likes only hours after posting, contained comments such as, “How I think I hit in practice (I’m a libero)” and “I wanna be like Coop when I grow up.”

In a quirky video Wong created earlier in the season presenting the team not in the heat of the game with the caption “never a dull time in Pauley,” some comments fawned over the vibe of the players while others tagged their friends.

@hykchora never a dull time in pauley 🤩 @UCLA Men’s Volleyball #fyp #volleyball #volleyballworld #clubvolleyballcheck #volleyballplayer #mensvolleyball #haikyuu #uclavolleyball ♬ original sound – Ritz

Trickling down from the public attention, the same sentiments have made their way into player’s direct messages.

“My audience is more the younger generation of volleyball players, kids 14 and under,” Rowan said. “I get a bunch of DMs about setting tips and what to do here what to do there. … I just try to help those kids who reach out because I was one of those kids back in the day, and I remember I used to do the same thing and it’d make my year when I get a response from one of these guys, so I try to return the favor.”

UCLA men’s volleyball as a program has been the cornerstone of bringing the sport into the NCAA, into the MPSF and now, into more facets of the digital world.

The sport may have leaps and bounds to get as popular as even its female counterpart, but it’s getting closer one video at a time.

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Amelie Ionescu | Sports senior staff
Ionescu was previously an assistant Sports editor on the men's volleyball, women's volleyball, swim and dive and rowing beats, and a contributor on the women's tennis beat.
Ionescu was previously an assistant Sports editor on the men's volleyball, women's volleyball, swim and dive and rowing beats, and a contributor on the women's tennis beat.
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