Men’s Beach Becomes First Ever to Win National Title

By Brandon Petersen

The Westcliff men's beach volleyball team collected its first national championship Sunday in Huntsville, Alabama where it took down Webber International, 3-2, to win the AVCA Fall Collegiate Beach Championships. 

Beach Volleyball is a new collegiate sport, and Westcliff will go down in history to be the first team to win the national title. 

"Unreal," Westcliff head coach Kenny Ma said. "No one can ever take away this feeling and this championship. Our team will forever be in the history books as the first ever national champion for men's collegiate beach volleyball." 

The championship match came down to Westcliff's No. 2 pair of Dane Johnson and Jacob Titus, and despite facing Webber match points on five separate occasions, Johnson and Titus fought all the way back in the third set to capture the win at 19-17 and claim the title. 

"Today was a huge team effort," Ma said. "The collaboration of each player guided us to this national championship."

Westcliff's No. 1 pair of DJ Klasnic and Ilias Lazaar won 2-0, while the No. 4 pair of Gabriel Pizza and Andy Jaszczynski picked up the Warriors' 3rd point with a 2-0 win. 

"Our 4s match was very intense and when we won, 2-0, we felt pretty confident about pulling out the championship," Ma said. "However, our 2s, who had an easy match against (Webber) the day before, found themselves falling behind and losing 19-21 in the first set."

No. 3 Aidan Wahl and John Rzepniewski and No. 5 Bhrycen Asuncion and Ghie Lubrica fell to Webber 0-2. 

Ma says this is just the beginning for the program. 

"Our season was far from perfect," he said. "But I am glad that we were able to push through all of the adversities and complete the No. 1 goal that we set on Day 1."

Although Westcliff is currently just one of a handful of collegiate men's beach volleyball in the country, Ma says the school is blazing a trail that many will follow.

"This sport will continue to grow because of what we are doing here," he said. "We just want to say thank you to Shawn Harris and Westcliff for giving our athletes a platform to showcase their talent at this level. 

"We also want to thank everyone who has supported us this entire season. We could not have done any of this without all of your support and belief in our program."

Westcliff finished the season 14-2 and 7-0 in conference play. 

Their only losses came at the hands of Webber International. 

Fortunately, the Warriors won the one that counted. 

And now they are the champs.