Members of the Penn State men’s volleyball team knew history was on the line when they stepped onto the court in Fort Wayne, Ind., in the spring of 1994.

However, it wasn’t until after the match when they realized how important their great moment was to those beyond their campus. That night, the Nittany Lions made history, defeating UCLA to win the national championship and becoming the first program to hoist the trophy that did not hale from California.

“That’s something I’m proud of – being on that team – now more than probably when it happened,” said Jason Kepner, who admits to needing years of perspective to fully appreciate their accomplishment.

Kepner was a redshirt freshman that season, seeing sparse playing time in the run to the championship, but he did play a role in that final victory. He would play an even bigger role in helping Penn State return to the title match the next season – this time won by UCLA – and in two subsequent seasons. By the time he graduated, he had left his mark on the program, to this day still appearing in the Penn State record books. He even played his final three matches with a broken finger.

He has since moved into coaching, having completed his 13th season at the helm at the College of Charleston, his 295-134 record giving him the most coaching wins in program history.

For his contributions as a coach, as a mentor, as a player and as a member of that trail-blazing team in 1994, Kepner has earned a spot in the Eastern Intercollegiate Volleyball Association’s Hall of Fame. Kepner will be honored during the NCAA National Championship at George Mason, set for May 7-9 at Eagle Bank Arena. He will be joined by Yale’s Andy Fishburn and George Mason’s Shaun Powell for the EIVA’s ninth Hall of Fame class. (Profiles of the other 2 honorees will appear later in March) (Hall of Fame Announcement)

Kepner is the third member of the 1994 title team to earn EIVA enshrinement, joining Ivan Contreras and Ramon Hernandez.

During his four playing seasons, after redshirting as a freshman, Kepner, Contreras and the Nittany Lions put together a 101-14 record, four EIVA titles, four trips to the NCAAs and two appearances in the finals.

Before the 1994 season, only five schools had won men’s volleyball national championships, and all of them were from California. UCLA had 14 of those titles, including in 1993. Only two non-California programs had even been in the finals before – Ohio State in 1977 and Penn State in 1982.

“Everyone was excited about, kind of the world versus the west coast,” Kepner remembered about the trips to the tournament.

But this also was the 10th trip to the tournament for Penn State.

“When you’re in college and you’re doing that, you appreciate it but I don’t think you appreciate it as much until years down the road and you start looking back at it a little more,” Kepner said. “We kind of always looked at ourselves and the Penn State program as a program that could do it. We had been to that national semifinal so many times.”

When the final point was locked up, a celebration ensued. Among those running onto the floor were players from IPFW and Ball State, nearly as excited to see an eastern team win as the Nittany Lions themselves.

“When you have the IPFW guys and the Ball State guys all running onto the court, things like that put it all together,” Kepner said. “That’s what makes you think about it, when other programs are supporting you. You talk to them years down the road and it still comes up.”

The Nittany Lions kept rolling, and appeared poised for a second crown in 1997. But in the final practice before the EIVA tournament, Kepner broke the pinky finger on his hitting hand. Undeterred, he played in both the semifinals and finals to help Penn State to the conference title, though he took another shot to the hand for a second break to the finger and a chipped bone. He returned to State College to have two pins sticking out the side of his finger, along with a splint and a wrap on the hand. He played in the semis against UCLA and had been doing well – “He was on fire,” recalls Penn State coach Mark Pavlik – until he took one really hard spike off the hand that twisted the splint behind his hand and bent the pins so much they ripped the skin. He went to the sideline, got everything bent back into place, and returned to the match.

“After that I was not the same,” he said. “I was extremely determined to play and there was nothing anyone could say to keep me off the court. It was going to be the last time I would get to wear a Penn State jersey. We were No. 1 or No. 2 in the country at the time with only 1 loss on the season and had a great chance to win the national championship. I really wanted that one more opportunity with my teammates.”

UCLA won in five sets, 15-10 in the fifth, and Penn State finished with a 26-2 record.

Kepner was a second-team All-American his final season for both the AVCA and Volleyball Magazine. He is still in the Nittany Lion career record book, ranking 13th in kills (1,249), ninth in attacks (2,443), 10th in aces (88) and seventh in digs (693). Kepner’s abilities set a high standard for Pavlik.

“I go to juniors tournaments, high schools, looking for the passers that pass the ball like Jason,” said Pavlik, who was an assistant coach for the 1994 team and has been at the Nittany Lions’ helm since 1995. Pavlik puts Kepner in the top three passers ever for his program, along with Dennis Del Valle and Ricky Mattei.

“There was so much he did for his teams just by passing the ball,” Pavlik said. “With the side-out scoring, you needed to side out and Jason was so crucial to that.”

Kepner played a couple seasons professionally, including in Holland, trained with the U.S. national program and was on the U.S. team at the World University Games. Then, he discovered coaching, and the joys of imparting wisdom not only in how to play the game but what can be learned away from matches.

“I want people to have the same experience I did,” Kepner said. “I can’t fault any aspect, the goods and the bads, of the times I played and the comradery and everything that went along with it. I felt that was something I want to emphasize.”

The native of Lancaster, Pa., has found a comfortable home in Charleston, S.C., and neither he nor his family want to leave. They love the school and the city, and the school supports his program. He has guided the Cougars to eight conference titles, either shared or won outright, and five NCAA tournament appearances. He also was inducted into the Pennsylvania Volleyball Hall of Fame in 2004.

His success as a coach was built on the foundation from Penn State, as a part of a program that finally busted through the west coast dominance of the sport. In 49 NCAA tournaments, only six schools outside California have celebrated a national title (including two that were later vacated by NCAA sanctions). In the 25 seasons since Penn State’s first win, 11 trophies have been won by non-California schools, and in a 10-year stretch from 2008-2017, Penn State, Ohio State and Loyola combined for six championships.

Kepner is proud of what the Nittany Lions accomplished then, what the program has maintained since, and how much the sport has grown across the country.

“I love it,” Kepner said. “It is such a great sport and has so much potential for growth. I’m super-excited to see all the new programs.”

The lessons and experiences he had at Penn State in the 1990s are part of what Kepner still teaches to his teams.

“The best memories I have are just of the people I played with,” Kepner said. “It was such a fun time … and I still talk to those guys on a regular basis.”