Cal Lutheran University’s star libero, once a standout at Thousand Oaks High School, played his first year of collegiate volleyball at Springfield College in Massachusetts before returning to Moorpark College and finally donning a Kingsman jersey for his junior and senior seasons.
On April 23, a Cal Lutheran roster loaded with Ventura County talent is hunting for another national championship berth, back where it all began for Gonzales.
Cal Lutheran (23-6) will play at Springfield College (23-3), the No. 1 team in the nation, at 2 p.m. Thursday in the NCAA Division III Final Four.
“Once I ended up at Cal Lu, I was like, that is the goal right there,” Gonzales said of his return to Springfield. “Every single time I have envisioned anything successful happening this entire season, that has been the image — us, ending up here, in this position. There is really nothing I wanted more than being able to finish my career back where I started.”
It is Cal Lutheran’s third Final Four appearance in a row after winning the national title in 2024.
The semifinal match will be broadcast live on NCAA.com. The NCAA championship game will be available at the same website at 4 p.m. on Saturday.
Gonzales, who set a program record for digs in a season (301) during a reverse sweep of MIT on April 18 in Hoboken, New Jersey, to win a regional title, is just the tip of the iceberg.
Five locals, including junior outside Tyler Linville of Thousand Oaks High, senior outside Aidan Godfrey of Westlake High, junior outside Evan Ford of Royal High and junior setter Garrett Ream, also of Royal, play for the Kingsmen.
Gonzales, Linville, Godfrey and Ream played at Moorpark College before Cal Lutheran, while Ford played at Belmont Abbey College.
Linville, once Gonzales' teammate back at Thousand Oaks, amassed 29 kills over Cal Lutheran’s first two playoff matches. Gonzales, an American Volleyball Coaches Association All-American for the 2025-26 season, has shined in keeping the ball off the hardwood.
They make up one most local-laden Cal Lutheran rosters in recent memory, according to head coach Kevin Judd.
“Sometimes, to be quite honest, it is hard to recruit a local athlete to Cal Lutheran because we are in their backyard. A lot of kids, sometimes they want to venture away from home,” Judd said. “Those athletes, they didn’t come to CLU their freshman year. They tried to seek out some other paths first, … They were like, ‘Man, right here at home? Why not?’ ”
The Kingsmen will be looking to exact some revenge for last year’s straight-set loss to Springfield in the Final Four after winning the national title the year before.
“They have something to prove,” Judd said. “This year, I think the group with the graduation of five seniors from that team was like, ‘OK, let’s prove that we can play at this level as well.’ They have had that drive to say they can be a championship team as well.
“Their resiliency, that chip on their shoulder of, ‘We can be a championship team, too,’ is something that they are driving, playing hard (for).”
Dominic Massimino is a staff writer for The Star. He can be reached at dominic.massimino@vcstar.com. For more coverage, follow @vcsdominic on Twitter and Instagram.
This article originally appeared on Ventura County Star: Local talent powers CLU men's volleyball into another Final Four