2011 COLLEGIATE WOMEN’S VOLLEYBALL CHAMPIONSHIPS Bruins are The
back
MATCH POINT: Penn State celebrates win- ning its fourth NCAA title in a row. (Photo: Penn State)
UCLA wins fi rst NCAA Division I Championship in 20 years O
nly a few months before UCLA’s legendary men’s volley- ball coach Al Scates is scheduled to ride into the sunset with his record 19 national championships in 50 years, it seemed fi tting that one of Scates’ former players guided the Bruins women’s team back into national prominence. Mike Sealy reenergized the UCLA
program in just two seasons, leading the Bruins to their fi rst NCAA cham- pionship in 20 years. UCLA’s drought ended with a fl ood of big victories in the NCAA Division I Women’s Volleyball Championship that included a drub- bing of four-time defending national
38 | VOLLEYBALLUSA
champion Penn State (3-0), the ouster of the 64-team tournament’s top-seeded University of Texas (3-1), a sweep of upstart Florida State University (3-0) in the national semifi nals and the ultimate conquest over Big Ten powerhouse Uni- versity of Illinois in the championship match played in front of 13,747 fans in the Alamodome in San Antonio, Texas, on Dec. 17. Sealy, a setter on UCLA’s title team of 1993 when he was named the NCAA Tournament’s Most Outstanding Player, became the fi rst coach to win a men’s championship as a player and a wom- en’s title as a coach. He did it by recreat-
ing the Bruin mystique that had waned in recent years. A major component of that mystique is an expectation of suc- cess. As a player, Sealy said he always visualized victories, but he was drained emotionally after a long Pac 12 season and six tournament matches in which the Bruins never were extended to a fi fth set.
“I haven’t slept in a long time,” he
said after the fi nal point. “I was talking to a lot of coaches over the last couple of days. I’m glad it’s not just me – two hours a night, three hours a night. The wheels are spinning, your mind’s spin- ning, trying to fi gure stuff out.”
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