{"id":306843,"date":"2026-05-09T00:14:09","date_gmt":"2026-05-09T00:14:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/306843\/"},"modified":"2026-05-09T00:14:09","modified_gmt":"2026-05-09T00:14:09","slug":"long-beach-states-skyler-varga-chases-another-title-in-final-weekend-of-his-collegiate-career-the562-org","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/306843\/","title":{"rendered":"Long Beach State\u2019s Skyler Varga Chases Another Title in Final Weekend of His Collegiate Career \u2013 The562.org"},"content":{"rendered":"

The562\u2019s coverage of Long Beach State athletics for the 2025-26 season is sponsored by Marilyn Bohl<\/a>.<\/p>\n

There he stood: a 6-foot-7, blonde-haired, blue-eyed Canadian stepping off a plane in the United States for the first time.<\/p>\n

Just weeks earlier, he had no idea he\u2019d be moving out of his home country. His only vision for his volleyball future at that point was to graduate from his local high school in Muenster, Saskatchewan, then play at a Canadian university during the school year while competing on the country\u2019s national team in the summer.<\/p>\n

Turns out, there were other plans for that kid, Skyler Varga.<\/p>\n

He never would have guessed it, but four years later his name is cemented in Long Beach\u2019s rich volleyball history, and the All-American outside hitter is now preparing for the final weekend of his collegiate career, looking to go out on top. Varga and the Beach have a chance to claim a second straight NCAA National Championship as they gear up to face Hawai\u2019i on Saturday in the Final Four.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s definitely scary,\u201d Varga admitted. \u201cI want to win so badly, but I\u2019m trying not to put too much pressure on it. I\u2019m just trying to enjoy my last couple of practices and go into this weekend knowing that I\u2019ve been training for this moment for the last four years. I just want to help our team get to the last match of the season, and if we get there, when we get there, I\u2019m going to do everything I can to help this team hang up another banner.\u201d<\/p>\n

It wasn\u2019t until the end of his first college season at the University of Saskatchewan that Varga\u2019s planned-out career took a different direction. Up to that point, he had followed in the footsteps of his brothers, Devin and Lyndon, but things changed once he decided to transfer\u2014a move that would have required a one-year sit-out period within Canada.<\/p>\n

During his stint with the national team that summer, head coach at the time Ben Josephson brought up a different idea. Josephson, who had been closely mentored by former Long Beach State coach Alan Knipe, suggested Varga transfer to play NCAA volleyball in the United States.<\/p>\n

\u201cI honestly didn\u2019t know anything about the NCAA, and I thought I was going to play all five years [at the University of Saskatchewan],\u201d Varga said. \u201cThe idea never crossed my mind until [Josephson] brought it up, and I didn\u2019t even know there was volleyball down here, to be honest. He got me in contact with Nick [MacRae], McKay [Smith] and [Knipe], and things just happened so quickly.\u201d<\/p>\n

Long Beach State is one of the top landing spots in the country for international volleyball talent, making it a great fit. Just this past summer, nine current and former players represented four different countries in the Volleyball Nations League, and after being connected through Josephson, the Beach\u2019s coaching staff immediately saw the potential for him to become their next international star.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor us, we saw that he had the arm of a lifetime on film,\u201d said MacRae, who was an assistant at the time but is now in his first year as head coach of the Beach. \u201cYou mix it with not even being a top 10-percenter, but a top 1-percenter with his work ethic\u2014he put in all the work and the rest is history.\u201d<\/p>\n

Varga made his decision within weeks of connecting with the coaching staff. He had only been out of the country once before, but it was time to pack his bags and head to California to continue his volleyball career\u2014a place he\u2019d soon come to know as home away from home.<\/p>\n

\"DSC<\/a>Former Long Beach State coach Alan Knipe substitutes Varga into the match during his first regular-season appearance in January 2023 against King.<\/p>\n

\u201cI didn\u2019t know what to expect coming here,\u201d he said. \u201cI was just kind of blown away by the busyness of everything, but I thought it was really cool. I kind of just fell in love with it right away. California is awesome, and Long Beach is great. I understood why people love it here so much.\u201d<\/p>\n

Varga made an immediate impression upon arrival, and his teammates quickly gravitated toward him\u2014a trait that would later earn him back-to-back selections as a team captain.<\/p>\n

\u201cFrom day one to now, [Varga] is one of the greatest men that I\u2019ve ever been around,\u201d MacRae said. \u201cThat\u2019s from a leadership standpoint and from a competitive standpoint, but mostly just him as a human being.\u201d<\/p>\n

But his path to three straight NCAA Final Fours was anything but perfect. Just two games into his first season with the Beach, Varga faced the toughest challenge of his career, landing awkwardly in practice before the team\u2019s trip to Penn State and later discovering he had torn his meniscus, ending his season indefinitely.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe months of recovery after were really hard,\u201d Varga said. \u201cIt was a lot of pulling up to practice in the morning, groggy, not wanting to be here because I had to do my PT and rehab and then watch practice for two hours. I was miserable. I just wanted to be playing. It\u2019s hard to watch and not be out there.\u201d<\/p>\n

The turnaround to his first full season playing with the Beach was quick. After the January injury, Varga underwent a second surgery and didn\u2019t return to full activity until November, leaving him just weeks to prepare for his junior year.<\/p>\n

Varga switched to opposite that season to better fit the team and earned Honorable Mention All-American honors, recording 16 double-digit kill performances and averaging 3.77 points per set while also leading the team in aces per set. The Beach reached the NCAA championship match that season, falling to UCLA in four sets at the Walter Pyramid.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou learn a lot after losing. It\u2019s hard, but you realize that it\u2019s not the end of the world,\u201d Varga said. \u201cObviously, it would\u2019ve been great to come out with a national championship after everything that went on that year, but I knew I had two more years left and I took everything from that match and applied it in 2025 and hopefully again this weekend.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"127<\/a>Varga poses with his family while holding the flag of his home province, Saskatchewan, after winning the 2025 NCAA National Championship in Columbus, Ohio.<\/p>\n

Varga was selected as a First-Team AVCA All-American in 2025, helping the Beach earn redemption in the national championship with a sweep over UCLA at the Covelli Center in Columbus, Ohio. He led the team with 270 kills on the season while hitting .368, helping the Beach claim its fourth championship in program history.<\/p>\n

\u201cFrom the moment last year\u2019s team got together, we all had the same goal of winning a national championship,\u201d Varga said. \u201cWe lost a couple games here and there, like the Big West tournament, but it still felt right. Walking into the Covelli Center, we just knew it was our game and felt like we were going to do good things. We just knew. It\u2019s kind of indescribable.\u201d<\/p>\n

Whatever that feeling was, he\u2019s hoping to find it again this weekend. The Beach\u2019s hopes of reaching another national championship rest on Saturday\u2019s semifinal matchup against Hawai\u2019i at 6:30 pm at Pauley Pavilion, the fourth meeting between the two rivals this season.<\/p>\n

The last time the teams met was just two weeks ago in the Big West Championship, where Varga had 16 kills while hitting .237 in the Beach\u2019s win. With a win Saturday, Long Beach State would advance to Monday\u2019s national championship match at 4 pm at Pauley Pavilion against either UC Irvine or Ball State.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m definitely going to tell the team later this week, like, \u2018Trust me, I\u2019ve been in these situations and you don\u2019t need to panic,\u201d Varga said of the message to his younger teammates. \u201c\u2018It\u2019s big, but be grateful you\u2019re in this moment. Not a lot of people get to experience this, so take it in and don\u2019t be afraid of the pressure.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Whether or not another championship banner is hung in the rafters this weekend, Varga\u2019s career in Long Beach will stand among the best. And yet, when asked what he\u2019ll remember most from the past four years, it wasn\u2019t the championships.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s just the super tight family that I\u2019ve made in Long Beach,\u201d he said. \u201cNot just men\u2019s volleyball, but the campus and city are just close, and I\u2019m going to miss that part of seeing familiar faces around all the time. Just coming to practice and seeing the guys, playing in the Pyramid every day is unbeatable. It\u2019s the best venue and the best place to play for sure, so I\u2019m definitely going to miss that a lot.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The562\u2019s coverage of Long Beach State athletics for the 2025-26 season is sponsored by Marilyn Bohl. There he…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":306844,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[131,133,132],"class_list":["post-306843","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-long-beach","tag-long-beach","tag-long-beach-headlines","tag-long-beach-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/306843","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=306843"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/306843\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/306844"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=306843"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=306843"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=306843"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}