The Loyola University Chicago men's volleyball team has been one of the most consistent programs in the country this decade. Though through its first 17 years of existence, the teams flirted with NCAA Tournament appearances but were never able to seal the deal.
 
When the head coaching position was open prior to the 2004 season, Shane Davis took the job. The program's all-time leader in career assists accepted the position a mere three and a half months removed from playing in a match for the Ramblers, and built The Maroon and Gold into a powerhouse from the Midwest, earning the elusive bid to the Final Four in 2013.
 
366 days later, the program changed forever. The dream of winning a National Championship became a reality, and it happened in the Ramblers' home gym of Gentile Arena.
 
Today is the fifth anniversary of the 2014 National Championship team. And to this day, no other Loyola team has won more matches in a season, compiled a perfect MIVA record or posted an unblemished record on the road.



Long before the sellout crowd at Gentile Arena got to witness the National Championship trophy get handed to Davis, the head coach noticed a disappointment among his team for not reaching volleyball's pinnacle in 2013, despite that season producing a groundbreaking finish.
 
"After that 2013 NCAA Tournament loss, there was excitement in the sense of the program making that jump, but also a lot of disappointment from the younger guys about not making it further than the semifinal match…" Davis said. "That younger group was made up of a lot of guys that won National Championships at the club level, were All-Tournament and Tournament MVPs, so that disappointment led to a drive during the summer of them working out on their own that maybe hadn't been there as much in previous seasons.
 
"That group [of players] led the charge over the summer leading into that fall's training. They were really good in terms of understanding the work that had to get done during the summer and not wait until the fall to make it happen. Because if they waited until fall, they wouldn't have been able to get it done by spring."
 
After what was at the time the most successful season in program history, the returning letterwinners knew the next year could be even more special. The returning core was highlighted by First Team AVCA All-American Thomas Jaeschke and co-captains Joe Smalzer and Peter Jasaitis.
 
 "Every year that went by, we started picking up players from all over the country – both from the Midwest and West Coast – that were just next level," Smalzer said. "Seeing all of that come together in the gym really put that taste in your mouth, especially coming off that first NCAA Tournament run, that the possibility [of doing even better] is even more so within our grasp."
 
Smalzer, a RS-senior at the time who joined the program in 2010, is the only student-athlete in program history to earn First Team All-MIVA nods four different seasons. As one of the leaders on that 2014 team, Smalzer knew this was the last chance for him in his classmates to win the last match of the season.
 
"It was time for us to accomplish what we'd been preparing for the last five years," he said.
 
While it may not have shown in the box score, the unsung heroes played an integral role in the team's success. The amount of quality players on the roster fighting for playing time forced the regular seven to stay sharp and not get complacent. The head-to-head matchups in practice featuring some of the best players the MIVA had to offer rose everybody's game to the next level. Davis and Jasaitis both felt practices were more competitive than some of the matches that season.
 
"We had a culture that self-policed and self-led itself because we all really wanted to win," Jasaitis said. "Everyone on the team had an extremely high work ethic."
 
So what challenges does a head coach have on his hands when working with that many talented and self-driven players?
 
"Not to screw it up," Davis said.
 
The keen ability by the bench boss to manage the roster's depth was key in not screwing it up, but Davis also gives an enormous amount of credit his coaching staff. The work they put in went a long way to allow the student-athletes to be put in the best possible position to succeed.
 
"The staff had been together the entire time and stayed together, and I think that chemistry and camaraderie between the staff was really important in the success of the team," Davis said. "I understand my strengths and weaknesses as a coach, and [then assistant coaches Mark Hulse, Kris Berzins and Ben Wilson] played off those things really well."



An early-season setback against USC to conclude a back-to-back-to-back resulted in the only loss of the season. From there, the Ramblers rolled. 22 straight wins concluded the regular season, and then three more through a MIVA Tournament that saw the Ramblers drop just one set.
 
"You need to walk into a match knowing you have every capability of winning, but knowing you're also going to do everything you can to win," Jaeschke said. "I think that's the balance that team found."
 
The Ramblers entered the NCAA Tournament as the nation's top-seeded team. All that stood in their way was having to knock off two of the other three semifinalists in town between BYU, Stanford and Penn State.
 
"Here we had a sold out crowd and it was just so loud. I remember getting goosebumps walking out of the tunnel and just [seeing] 5,000 people jumping up and cheering at the guys," Davis said. "I was looking around and enjoying the moment for a little bit, but as soon as you got to the bench it was all business."
 
Loyola drew Penn State in its semifinal tilt. Despite the fact they only needed four sets to upend the Nittany Lions back in March, this meeting was anything but a cakewalk.
 
"If you're going to put in a bid to host a National Championship, you better feel really good about being there," Davis said. "I think the nerves and pressure came out in the semifinal match against Penn State.
 
"Everything was tough, the touch wasn't quite there but they just gutted and grinded it out at the end."
 
The schools engaged in a tightly-contested five-set semifinal that nearly extended into the a.m. due to the earlier semifinal going five as well. The Ramblers led for most of the winner-take-all fifth frame, but Penn State cut its deficit to 11-10 and forced Davis to take a timeout due to the momentum shift.
 
"One specific moment I remember was late in the fifth set against Penn State. After we called timeout, Hulse said in the huddle 'Let's call this what it is. It's 11:30 at night, we're all dog s*** tired. You have four more points to compete, so go get it.'" Jaeschke recalled. "When we stood up, the entire arena stood up and started cheering. That moment sticks out for me and I think always will."
 
The Ramblers went on a 4-1 run out of the break in the action and advanced to the National Championship.
 
"There was a phrase that was said a couple of times throughout the year where we'd be hitting adversity and it'd be like, 'I have 100 percent confidence that we're going to execute this next play,' because we had done it so many times. I think that worked 99 percent of the time… Luckily that was one the 99 times and not the one time," Jasaitis chuckled. 



The nerves among the team subsided by the time that National Championship night rolled around, and it showed with the performance Loyola delivered against Stanford. The team's execution led to a four-set victory that kept the Cardinal under 20 points in each of the three frames Loyola won, including a 25-15 dismantling in the fourth stanza to send the Gentile Arena crowd into raptures.
 
"Everyone knew what they had to do," Smalzer said. "One of the biggest challenges as a team getting into really stressful situations is people diverting from what their job and role is on the court. You can just tell looking at everyone that everyone completely 100 percent trusted the other players on and off the court."
 
The Ramblers became the fourth program to win the National Championship on their home court, and the first outside of California. Three of the four Loyola NCAA All-Tournament Team selections had hometowns from Midwest states.
 
"I think [we] almost basked in that a little bit," Jaeschke said referring to the primarily Midwestern makeup of the team. "We basked in not being from California and not thinking we deserve anything and having a chip on our shoulder… I just think that work ethic is something that got instilled and is important."
 
Fittingly, the Ramblers defeated a California team that had 15 of its 20 players from in-state. It began a stretch of four straight National Championship teams hailing from the MIVA, and put Loyola University Chicago on the volleyball map. In what often was thought of as a West Coast dominated sport, the jaw-dropping finish by a small Jesuit institution in Chicago showed the parity and growth of men's volleyball across the country.