LOS ANGELES -- Cal State LA's national champion women's volleyball team lived through the adage, "it's not how you start, it's how you finish."

The start was a 2-6 record after two high-powered tournaments in San Bernardino and Colorado against top-level competition.

The finish was the program's first-ever NCAA Division II championship with the best volleyball Cal State LA has ever played.

NCAA Championships Most Outstanding Player Emily Elliott capped off a record-breaking season with an unbelievable run through the postseason. In Cal State LA's six NCAA playoff wins, Elliott had 128 kills in 22 sets (5.82 per set), hit at a .362 hitting percentage, had 21 service aces (0.95 per set) and 156 points (7.09 per set).

In the three matches at the Elite Eight against three of the top-five ranked teams in the nation, she was even better. Elliott had 76 kills (6.33 per set), hit at a .374 percentage, had 12 aces (1.0 per set), and 93 points (7.75 per set).

Elliott finished the season with a nation's best 5.69 points per set and was fourth in the nation at 4.77 kills per set. 

The rest of the team followed suit and played its best volleyball of the season - by far. At the Elite Eight, the Golden Eagles hit .301 as a team, had a 176-152 advantage in kills, a 26-9 edge in service aces, a 27-16 edge in blocks and a 229-177 advantage in points.

For the season, the Golden Eagles hit .245 as a team.

It was quite a journey to the promised land, to be sure.

After winning CCAA and West Region championships in 2022 for the first time since 2005, the Golden Eagles, who returned all of their starting lineup and nearly their entire roster, had definite championship aspirations at the start of the 2023 season. Cal State LA was ranked No. 9 in the American Volleyball Coaches Association's preseason poll and even that was considered a bit low considering the Golden Eagles had so many players returning from a team that reached the Final Four the previous season.

A national championship was a spoken goal.

The Golden Eagles, though, took a few gut punches at the start of this journey. Cal State LA stumbled out of the gates, dropping three of its four matches at the Yotes Classic Showcase at Cal State San Bernardino and following that up with a 1-3 record as well at the Colorado Premier Challenge. The quality of competition was outstanding and all of the Golden Eagles' losses were to nationally-ranked teams, but 2-6 was not how they envisioned the 2023 season beginning. 

The Golden Eagles admittedly felt the burden of being defending conference and regional champions and the 2-6 start added to their early-season discomfort and did allow some doubts to enter their minds.

In the end, though, the tough tournament scheduling served as a glimpse of what type of competition was ahead for the Golden Eagles - as long as they were able to rebound and reach the postseason again.

Cal State LA opened defense of its conference title with home wins over Chico State and Stanislaus State, but in the Golden Eagles' first road match, they were swept in three sets at Cal Poly Pomona and another early-season test loomed.

How would they bounce back from a lopsided loss to a prime conference contender and close rival?

As future champions, it turned out. Cal State LA rebounded with a three-set win at Cal State San Marcos and returned home the next week and played well in wins over Cal State San Bernardino and San Francisco State. Against the Gators, the Golden Eagles hit .360 and had only eight errors, a season-low that served as a benchmark - until a magical and eye-opening match at the NCAA Regionals.

Those wins were the start of a nine-match winning streak that put the Golden Eagles atop the CCAA standings, but didn't gain them much traction in the AVCA rankings. Cal State LA fell from No. 9 to No. 21 after the first two tournaments and slipped to No. 23 after its wins over Chico State and Stanislaus State. After the loss at Cal Poly Pomona, the Golden Eagles dropped to No. 25 and they didn't make it back above No. 23 despite the nine-match winning streak and holding onto sole possession first place in the conference race.

After road losses to San Francisco State and Cal State San Bernardino, the Golden Eagles fell out of first place in the conference and out of the AVCA Top-25.

Again, though, the Golden Eagles rebounded nicely. They won their final four conference matches to finish 15-3 in the CCAA and, on their bus trip back from an early-afternoon win over Chico State, received welcome news later that evening that Cal State San Bernardino had dropped its finale against Sonoma State. The Golden Eagles and Coyotes, therefore, finished in a tie for the conference regular-season championship, meaning Cal State LA had won back-to-back conference titles for the first time since 1999-2000.

Cal State LA then hosted the CCAA Tournament and, after a semi-final win over San Francisco State, the Golden Eagles fell to Cal State San Bernardino in four frustrating sets in University Gym.

That loss, as it turned out, might have been the best thing that could have happened to the Golden Eagles.

Cal State LA had an unthinkable 34 attack errors and 14 service errors in the match and head coach Juan Figueroa had seen enough. He knew the Golden Eagles had the talent to make a run at the national title and that their "A" game was as good as anyone's in the country, but championships simply aren't won with 34 attack errors in a match.

So Figueroa had the team watch the video from the CCAA championship match - error after agonizing error - and you can safely say the message was received.

An entirely different team showed up at the NCAA West Regionals in San Bernardino and promptly went on a postseason run for the ages.

Cal State LA, for the second straight season, peaked at precisely the right time.

The Golden Eagles split the first two sets in a 25-13, 21-25, 25-19, 25-20 win over No. 5 seed Seattle Pacific in an opening-round match and then didn't lose another while capturing a second straight NCAA West Region championship for the first time ever.

The Golden Eagles were better in a 25-23, 25-18, 25-19 victory over No. 1 Chaminade in the semifinals and then at their absolute best in a stunningly dominant 25-15, 25-16, 25-18 win over No. 2 seed Cal State San Bernardino on the Coyotes' home court in the title match. The 34 attack errors they had against Cal State San Bernardino one week earlier was incredibly cut to a season-low seven in the rematch and the Golden Eagles hit an unthinkable .439 against a Cal State San Bernardino team that had the best defense in the conference.

Elliott had 22 kills, six aces and hit at a .588 percentage. Iane Henke added 16 kills and hit at a .441 percentage.

Cal State LA's best match of the season - and maybe in program history - not only booked the Golden Eagles a return trip to the Elite Eight, but it also gave them the belief that this performance was good enough to beat anyone in the country.

What came next was three more impressive victories against the nation's best opposition. Cal State LA, as the No. 6 seed, opened against No. 3 seed Wayne State, a team that spent nine weeks as the nation's No. 1-ranked team. The Golden Eagles won an exciting first set, 26-24, but then dropped the next two, 25-21 and 25-12, and stood elimination squarely in the face for the first time in the postseason.

Enter Henke, who promptly served for 10 straight points and a 10-0 lead and made most of the fourth set a mere formality. The Golden Eagles took the fourth, 25-15, and,after trailing 4-1 in the fifth set, used a 6-0 run that included a pair of aces by Elliott to take the lead for good. The Wildcats pulled to within 11-10, but kills by Henke and Elliott stretched the lead to 13-10 and kills by Elliott accounted for the final two points.

Elliott matched a career-high with 30 kills and had a program-record 34 points in a sensational performance.

In the final set, Cal State LA had 12 kills and two aces among its 15 points so it wasn't a case of Wayne State falling victim to nerves. The Golden Eagles were simply too good when it mattered most.

Cal State LA was again firing on all cylinders in the semifinals, having only eight errors - and only two over the final two sets - in a 25-21, 25-21, 25-17 win over No. 2 Missouri-St. Louis. Elliott had 19 kills and four aces in the three sets, while Henke and Ashley Dittmann had 10 kills each.

In the championship match, the Golden Eagles jumped on defending champion West Texas A&M by winning the first two sets and, after falling in the third set, were on fire again in the fourth while closing out a 25-23, 25-16, 22-25, 25-14 victory.

Elliott (27) and Henke (21) had more kills than West Texas A&M had as a team (47).  Elliott also had six aces and ended the tournament with 21, just two shy of the NCAA postseason record.

Elliott was the tournament's Most Outstanding Player and was joined on the All-Tournament Team by Henke, Cannon and Haley Roundtree.

A journey that started off a bit bumpy was smooth sailing at the end.