Apr 29, 2013 3 min read

The NCAA men’s volleyball Final Four begins Thursday in Los Angeles, and fourth-seeded Penn State won’t be the only local connection.

Top-ranked and No. 1-seed Brigham Young (25-4), which will play No. 14 Penn State (23-7) at 11 p.m., features former Peters Township High School player Devin Young.

A 2007 Peters Township graduate, Young is a 6-9 starting middle blocker for the Cougars. He was named to the all-tournament team at the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation tournament after helping BYU defeat Long Beach State in the championship match Saturday night. Young had seven kills and hit .700 in the title game. He averaged five kills and six blocks in the tournament.

Perhaps Young’s best game came in BYU’s victory earlier this month against fourth-ranked UCLA. The Bruins won the first two sets before Young and the Cougars rallied to win in five games. Young had a game-high 10 blocks, including one that ended the game and capped the Cougars’ come-from-behind victory.

He also converted 12 of 17 chances into kills in BYU’s season-ending victory at eighth-ranked Stanford.

A redshirt junior from McMurray, Young is a former walk-on who moved into the starting lineup this year and has helped the Cougars hold the No. 1 ranking for 11 of the last 14 weeks.

It has been a long, strange trip for Young from high school volleyball player to college walk-on to starter on the No. 1-ranked team in the country.

Young was a three-year letterman and senior class valedictorian at Peters Township. He was named first team all-section and third team all-region. He had no intention of playing volleyball at BYU, but the day before classes began his freshman year, Young was spotted at a volleyball tournament and encouraged to try out for the team. In the middle of the first week of the tryout, one of BYU’s coaches told Young that he was going to be cut, but asked him to stay for the remainder of the week. Young was informed again during the second week of the tryout that he would eventually be cut, but when the cut list was posted, Young’s name was not included. He had made the team.

After being redshirted his first season, Young went on a Mormon mission to Long Beach, Calif., and did not play volleyball for two years. When he returned to school in 2011, Young again tried out for the Cougars’ volleyball team, and this time he did not make the roster. However, before the season began, a player quit the team, and it opened a roster spot for Young, who in three seasons worked his way up the depth chart and moved into the starting lineup this season.

The opening game in the semifinals matches second-seeded Cal-Irvine (23-7) against third-seeded Loyola of Chicago (22-9) at 9 p.m. Both semifinals will be telecast on NCAA.com. The winners meet in the finals Saturday at 9 p.m. The title match will be televised by ESPNU.