Three Bruins Chosen for Men's Volleyball VNL Roster

Three Bruin men's volleyball players – Micah Ma'a, Garrett Muagututia, Ethan Champlin -- have been selected to the 30-athlete roster which includes 10 Olympians for the 2024 Volleyball Nation's League (VNL) which is the world's premier annual international indoor volleyball tournament that starts in late May.
 
UCLA coach John Speraw, who was named head U.S. Men's coach in 2013, and his staff (which includes Bruin assistant Morteza Shiari) will select 14 players from the long-list roster for each of the weekly competitions. The teams will play four matches a week for three weeks of preliminary competition in Turkey (May 22-26), Canada (June 4-8) and the Philippines (June 19-23). The top eight teams at the end of the preliminaries will advance to the Final Round on June 27-30 in Poland. The U.S. will enter the competition ranked No. 2 in the world and has won the silver medal at the last two VNL's (in 2022 and 2023).
 
Speraw's U.S. Men's Volleyball National Team finished the FIVB Road to Paris Olympic Qualifier in October undefeated when it beat Japan 3-2 (25-19, 22-25, 19-25, 25-23, 15-12) in Tokyo to earn a spot in the 2024 Paris Olympic Games. Ma'a and Muagututia each saw action in the qualifying tournament. Champlin, a member of the current UCLA men's volleyball team, earned a gold medal while playing for the U.S. this past off-season at the 2023 NORCECA Pan American Cup Final Six after defeating Canada in Edmonton, Alberta.
 
Ma'a was a member of the UCLA men's volleyball team from 2016-19 and has been a member of the U.S. Men's National Team since 2018. He has played professionally since 2019 and was a 2018 and 2019 first-team AVCA All-America while a Bruin. Muagututia, who took part in his first Olympics in Tokyo after being an alternate for the 2016 U.S. Olympic team, made his debut with the U.S. Men's National Team in 2011 and has played professionally in Spain, Finland, Italy, Turkey, Poland, China, Portugal and Greece. At UCLA, Muagututia earned second-team All-America honors in the 2010 and 2008 seasons

The 2024 Summer Olympics, officially the Games of the XXXIII Olympiad, will be held in Paris, France from July 26 to August 11, 2024. The U.S. Men have competed in 12 Olympic Games, including the last 10. The U.S. has won three Olympic gold medals and two bronze. Speraw guided the U.S. to the bronze medal at the 2016 Olympic Games. Next week, he will lead his Bruin team into the 2024 NCAA Men's Collegiate Volleyball Championships in Long Beach.
 
 
U.S. Men's National Team 30-Athlete Roster for
2024 Volleyball Nations League
No. Player (Position, Height, Hometown, College)
1  Matt Anderson (Opp, 6-10, West Seneca, N.Y., Penn State)
2 Aaron Russell (OH, 6-9, Ellicott City, Md., Penn State)
3 Gabi Garcia Fernandez (Opp, 6-7, San Juan, Puerto Rico, BYU)
4 Jeff Jendryk (MB, 6-10, Wheaton, Ill., Loyola Univ. Chicago)
5 Kyle Ensing (Opp, 6-7, Valencia, Calif., Long Beach State)
6 Quinn Isaacson (S, 6-2, Plainfield, Ill., Ball State)
7 Jacob Pasteur (OH, 6-4, Westminster, Md., Ohio State)
8 T.J. DeFalco (OH, 6-5, Huntington Beach, Calif., Long Beach State)
9 Jake Hanes (Opp, 6-10, Orland Park, Ill., Ohio State)
10 Kyle Dagostino (L, 5-9, Tampa, Florida, Stanford)
11 Micah Christenson (S, 6-5, Honolulu, Hawaii, USC)
12 Max Holt (MB, 6-10, Cincinnati, Ohio, Penn State)
13 Patrick Gasman (MB, 6-10, Clovis, Calif., Univ. of Hawaii)
14 Micah Ma'a (S, 6-3, Kaneohe, Hawaii, UCLA)
15 Kyle Russell (Opp, 6-9, Loomis, Calif., UC Irvine)
16 Josh Tuaniga (S, 6-3, Long Beach, Calif., Long Beach State)
17 Thomas Jaeschke (OH, 6-6, Wheaton, Ill., Loyola Univ. Chicago)
18 Garrett Muagututia (OH, 6-5, Oceanside, Calif., UCLA)
19 Taylor Averill (MB, 6-7, San Jose, Calif., Univ. of Hawaii)
20 David Smith (MB, 6-7, Saugus, Calif., UC Irvine)
21 Mason Briggs (L, 6-0, Long Beach, Calif., Long Beach State)
22 Erik Shoji (L, 6-0, Honolulu, Hawaii, Stanford)
23 Cody Kessel (OH, 6-5, Colorado Springs, Colo., Princeton)
24 Brett Wildman (OH, 6-5, Virginia Beach, Va., Penn State) 
25 Ethan Champlin (OH, 6-3, Oceanside, Calif., UCLA)
26 Matthew Knigge (MB, 6-7, New Egypt, N.J., Vassar)
27 Michael Marshman (MB, 6-7, Glenmont, N.Y., St. Francis)
28 Nicholas Slight (S, 6-3, Storm Lake, Iowa, Grand Canyon)
29 Jordan Ewert (OH, 6-5, Antioch, Calif., Stanford)
30 Daniel Wetter (MB, 6-5, Camarillo, Calif., CSUN)
Head Coach: John Speraw
Assistant Coaches: Matt Fuerbringer, Javier Weber, Andy Read
Second Assistant Coaches: Nicholas MacRae, Morteza Shiari, Erik Sullivan, Michael Wall