NCAA Volleyball: Arcadia's Speraw Eyes Another Title

When John Speraw was a student athlete at , he led the Apaches to volleyball superiority. Now, as a coach, he is leading UC Irvine to volleyball superiority.

In 1990, when Speraw was a senior at Arcadia, the volleyball team finished the season with a 19-0 record and its second CIF championship in three years.

UC Irvine is now attempting to win its third NCAA volleyball championship in five years under Speraw.

UCI, as it is often called, is not just a school with an unusual nickname. The Anteaters have become a volleyball powerhouse. They are the No. 1 seeded team in the NCAA Final Four being contested at USC’s Galen Center tonight and Saturday.

UCI, which has a record of 24-5, will play Penn State (23-5) in the semifinals tonight at 6 o’clock. A win would put UCI in Saturday’s championship match against either host USC or Lewis University of Romeoville, Ill.  USC and Lewis play tonight at 8.

Penn State, like UCI, is a two-time NCAA champion.

Speraw, in nine seasons at UCI, has a record of 197-106. UCI won its first NCAA title in 2007 and its second in 2009.

Speraw’s prowess in volleyball started to come to the forefront when he was a sophomore at Arcadia. He and two of his classmates, Scott Albrecht and Lucas DeGraff, helped Arcadia win the CIF Division II championship under legendary Coach Chuck Freberg.

“Coach Freberg pulled the three of us aside and told us were had an opportunity to do some big things in volleyball,” Speraw told me over lunch when I first met him a few years ago.

 I recall asking Freberg about that talk with Speraw and his friends.

 “I don’t recall doing that specifically,” Freberg said, “but I’m sure I did. Even though they weren’t starters that year, you could see the potential.”

That potential was realized in 1990 when Speraw, Albrecht and DeGraff led the Apaches to that perfect season.

Speraw, a lean 6-feet-5, also played basketball at Arcadia and set what was then a school record by scoring 42 points in a game.

After high school, Speraw attended UCLA and was a member of two championship volleyball teams there under another legendary coach, Al Scates, who just retired with 19 NCAA titles under his belt.

In 1995, Speraw was named to the NCAA all-tournament team after having 11 kills and eight blocks in the championship match against Penn State.

UCI defeated Penn State in the Final Four semifinals when the Anteaters won its first NCAA title in 2007. Speraw will be hoping for more fond memories against Penn State tonight.

Speraw graduated from UCLA with a degree in microbiology and molecular genetics with plans to become a doctor.

“He certainly made a left turn when he decided to get into coaching,” Freberg said. “He was always an excellent student and could have done just about anything. I think what attracted him to coaching was getting a chance to work with Al Scates.”  

Speraw was a volunteer assistant under Scates before becoming a full-time assistant with the Bruins in 1998 and then eventually moving on to UCI. Now there is talk of Speraw returning to UCLA as Scates’ replacement, or possibly becoming the U.S. national coach.  He was an assistant
coach when the U.S. won the gold medal at the 2008 Beijing Olympics.

But for now, he is concentrating on winning another title for UC Irvine.