When Long Beach State won its first NCAA men's volleyball championship 27 years ago, Alan Knipe was a junior middle blocker for the 49ers. On Saturday evening, he coached his alma mater to its second national title and many of his former teammates were there to celebrate with him.
"That group is really special to me, they are salt of the earth guys and it means the world to me that they were here," Knipe said, referring to his 1991 team that beat USC in the finals in Honolulu. "However, it wasn't just them. Between that one and this one we've been in lots of Final Fours and we must've had 150 former players here today.