Do something once, some will consider it a fluke. Do it twice and you’ve proven something.
That’s true for a lot of things in life … not just sports. But when you win and keep winning until you’re the last team standing, you don’t get to just stay on the top of the mountain and fight off your challengers from the advantage of the high ground.
You start the next season from the bottom again with zero victories, like everyone else. Winning it all again is never as simple as lather, rinse, repeat.
Yes, there are a few teams out there with overwhelming talent in various sports that easily crush their opponents year after year after year, reloading like machines and building dynasties.
The University of Hawaii men’s volleyball team made history again Saturday, joining the women’s squads of 1982 and 1983 as the only back-to-back team national champions in school annals.
With their victory over rival Long Beach State the Warriors became their sport’s fifth program in a row to successfully defend the national championship … but apparently there’s a term limit of two seasons.
So, now, after celebrating this one (and you can do so with the Warriors, today at UH at noon), it will be time to work toward breaking that trend, and winning three in a row — making more history. Then we can talk dynasty.
It is too much to ask for?
Of course it isn’t.
New challenges are what athletes and coaches live for (and creating and sustaining dynasties are a great source of job security for the latter).
>> RELATED: Assistant coach Josh Walker exits men’s volleyball program with a victory
>> RELATED: Hawaii wins its second national title
>> PHOTOS: Hawaii vs. Long Beach State
Fans are supposed to hope for and dream of limitless success — and unlike most cases, in this one, it’s a reasonable goal.
Unlike the 2021 champs, this Warriors team returns intact next year. Nearly all of the starters are just sophomores, including NCAA Tournament Most Outstanding Player Spyros Chakas. Super setter and server Jakob Thelle is the old man, and he’s just a junior.
It’s not like three in a row is impossible. It just hasn’t been done in a long time, back when UCLA won four in a row from 1981 to 1984.
Yes, college men’s volleyball is different now. It’s growing, as fast as any other sport. There will be even more challengers for the Warriors to fight off.
And — after losing in three sets — you know Long Beach State is going to remain at the top of that list hungry for another shot at UH.
The Beach’s star player, Alex Nikolov, is just a freshman. The fact that he was named the National Player of the Year over Thelle had to fuel the fire for the Warriors.
UH proved volleyball is a team game Saturday. With his match-high 20 kills, Nikolov showed that he was deserving of any individual awards. But he didn’t have enough help from his teammates.
This match was much closer than most sweeps — the Beach were not blown out in any of the three sets. But at nearly every key juncture, Hawaii made the clutch play. And the Warriors did not depend on any one player significantly more than the others on the court.
The play I’ll always remember from this match is Chaz Galloway diving into the stands to keep a long rally going that ended in a Hawaii point.
Earning validation and vindication at the same time is golden, and that’s what UH did Saturday in beating its biggest rival on the biggest stage. For the Warriors — and UH fans, of various sports — this sweep was all the sweeter because of the opponent.
Long Beach State and Hawaii’s rivalry goes way back … to when both schools’ women’s volleyball teams were perennial powerhouses, in the 1980s. The battles between Tara Cross and Teee Williams, Brian Gimmillaro and Dave Shoji, are legendary.
At various times over the years, the basketball teams have competed in big games, and it’s easy to envision the baseball teams regaining Big West relevance simultaneously.
Seems they’re even competitive in number of team nicknames. Long Beach State has three (49ers, the Beach, and, for baseball, Dirtbags), and UH has, depending on how you do the math, between three and five (the various combinations of Rainbows, Warriors and Wahine, plus the BeachBows) — or even more if you count ’Bows separately.
Also, if you live in Hawaii, there’s a very good chance you’re only one or two family members, friends and/or neighbors removed from someone with strong Long Beach ties. The most recent census numbers available tell us it’s home to the seventh-highest percentage of Hawaiians and Pacific Islanders for cities of 100,000 or more. Rivalries are often enhanced by relationships that connect us as much as by what separates us.
No two men’s volleyball teams know each other better than the Beach and the ’Bows; host LBSU beat UH twice during the regular season, and Hawaii returned the favor at the Stan Sheriff Center in the Big West championship match last month.
Despite the Warriors winning when it counted more, the Beach were top-seeded for the NCAA Tournament. Like Nikolov getting the Player of the Year hardware over Thelle, that might have been perceived as a slight and recycled into positive energy come match time.
It’s human nature that the team trying to knock off the kingpins might go in with a little bit more juice, a little more of that undefinable magic you can reach for when it’s needed most.
On this occasion, though, the reigning national champions showed they were just as hungry as, if not more than, their rivals who beat them for this same title three years ago.
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Reach Dave Reardon at dreardon@staradvertiser.com.
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CELEBRATION TIME
A welcome back celebration is planned for the national champion Hawaii volleyball team.
>> When: Today, noon
>> Where: Stan Sheriff Center back parking lot
>> Info: The event is open to the public. Parking in the structure is free.
