By Cam Fors and Conor Rourke
The moment Braden Gonzales steps into Blake Arena at Springfield College, it won’t just feel like another highly competitive match. For Gonzales, it will feel like stepping into his past.
Gonzales began his collegiate career as a member of the Pride in 2023. He learned the system and imagined his four years would be overseen by Springfield head coach Charlie Sullivan. However, he returns to Blake Arena as an opponent, suiting up for California Lutheran University in this Final Four matchup.
“Coming back into town this week was very exciting,” Gonzales said. “There’s no bad blood… Springfield was an awesome experience, but it just wasn’t the right fit for me. So, I ended up coming back home.”
Gonzales, originally from Thousand Oaks, California, traveled back home to play for the Kingsmen in his sophomore year. Throughout the past three years playing under Cal Lutheran head coach Kevin Judd, Gonzales has certified himself as one of the backbones of the Kingsmen, having led his team to three straight Final Four appearances and a National Championship in 2024. While the week is filled with excitement, it is also complicated for him. The gym carries a sense of familiarity. The court, crowd, and energy of a big match will still be present, but this time they won’t be cheering for him. Former teammates of his such as Dylan Mulvaney, Evan Costley and Will Kirchhoff will be across the net, so Gonzales knows exactly what to expect.
“People will probably be heckling me, but it will still be fun to see,” Gonzales joked.
His time at Springfield still holds dearly to him. He described it as “an awesome experience,” especially the opportunity to perform at a high level early on in his career. Now with Cal Lutheran, Gonzales has found both comfort and confidence in himself — which are two traits that will be tested in this personal matchup on Thursday. His teammates understand what this game means to him too.
“A lot of the younger guys know how much this means to me, how much I want to win, especially, you know, back in the gym that I started at,” he said.
In order to reach their aimed accomplishments however, the Kingsmen need to be on the same page internally.
“The mentality has to be confidence, I think everyone knows that we have the talent to win a National Championship. But at the end of the day, you know, there’s always going to be those nerves going into any sort of playoff match,” Gonzalez said. “We just have to know what got us here. There’s a reason that we are here and we need to just hold that confidence going into every single one of these games.”
The Kingsmen had the opportunity to portray that confidence in the first two rounds of the 2026 National Tournament, where they had to climb out of back-to-back deficits, including falling into a 0-2 hole against MIT on their way to Springfield. But despite their darkest moments, the Kingsmen came to light.
“Going into the third set down by two sets, I’m pretty sure that was the most confident we’d been at any point in the tournament,” Gonzales said. “There was no doubt we were going to win because we just envisioned ourselves in the Final Four.”
As Gonzalez prepares to square off against his former school, he and the rest of the Kingsmen have one goal in mind: to lift the trophy high, and further prove themselves as a perennial powerhouse in Division III men’s volleyball. For Gonzales, though, the stakes stretch beyond the scoreboard. This is a return shaped by growth, a chance to measure who he was against who he has become, all within the same walls where his journey first began.
Photo courtesy of Springfield College Athletics