Even after a second difficult loss to Hawaii at the Stan Sheriff Center little more than a week into the 2023 women’s volleyball season, Spencer McLachlin had the presence of mind to know in that moment that it could be a long-term positive.
McLachlin, a Honolulu native and first-year associate head coach with Brad Keller’s USC Trojans, had just watched the proud Pac-12 program fall to 1-4 to start the year. The Rainbow Wahine, while smaller, had proven too difficult to put away with their serve and pass game and a never-say-die attitude on defense. USC, with a number of players at new positions, had also fallen to ranked teams Houston and Rice in Texas.
“That was the intent of the schedule. And yeah, we just got to keep believing,” McLachlin, a Punahou School alumnus and former UH men’s volleyball assistant, told Spectrum News on the floor of an emptied Sheriff after the second UH-USC match on Sept. 2. “I think the girls do believe.”
After leaving the Islands, the Trojans promptly went on a nine-match winning streak, including their first four contests in Pac-12 play. Their season would include a win over then-No. 4 Washington State at the Galen Center on Oct. 20.
While it lost its last three games of the final Pac-12 regular season against a gauntlet of No. 2 Stanford, No. 6 Oregon and UCLA, USC (19-12) was assigned a No. 8 seed in the Pittsburgh quadrant of the NCAA Tournament. The Trojans swept UMBC in the first round on Friday and face the top seed, Pitt, at 2 p.m. Hawaii time Saturday.
While he was in the Islands, McLachlin said it was surreal to have his father, Spectrum Sports analyst Chris McLachlin, on the call courtside right behind him for two nights.
“He means so much to the volleyball community. And he's means so much to me as a coach,” McLachlin said. “He’s my idol. He's still my mentor. He's the first person I call if I've got a coaching question.”
Spencer McLachlin, 35, still brims with competitiveness to the point that he still thinks about Punahou’s 2007 state basketball championship loss to Kaimuki — “probably more than I should” — at the Sheriff. But he knew his future was in volleyball and he had a three-year stint for a club in Greece after his standout career at Stanford that included a national championship.
Before coaching, McLachlin first wanted to be a teacher, a passion he may still pursue someday, but for the meantime he figures he can be a “volleyball professor.”
His lesson for the Trojans when they faced UH: “They’ll dig four balls before you can kill one.” (Hawaii lost to Oregon in the NCAA second round on the opposite side of the bracket on Friday.)
At UH in 2015, he was on Charlie Wade’s staff that took the program to its first men’s NCAA Tournament appearance in 13 years. From there, he went on to jobs at Cal, UCLA and Indiana and experienced coaching on both the men’s and women’s side.
Keller got McLachlin to come over from IU after the 2022 season.
“I just feel really lucky that Charlie Wade gave me an opportunity,” McLachlin said. “And I feel like I've been really blessed to have learned from some amazing head coaches. Really lucky that I have formed a great relationship with Brad and he's trusted me to do a lot of volleyball stuff, and we've got to get better. And that's on me, and it's a fun challenge.”
Keller’s family overlaps with McLachlin’s in several ways, including playing with Keller’s brother at Stanford.
“It was kind of a no-brainer when there was an open position to go after Spencer,” Keller said in September. “Spencer brings a ton of volleyball knowledge, a great energy and he’s an unbelievable human. If you don’t like Spencer, it’s kind of your fault.”
McLachlin said he told his wife, the former USC women’s volleyball player Diane Copenhagen, that they would stay put for at least two years before they relocated again, possibly in pursuit of a head job.
“I feel like when you enter any profession, you want to become the best that you can at it. And that for the coaching professional is becoming the head coach, so that's definitely a goal. Just right now, all I'm concerned about is getting (this) team better at volleyball.”
The Trojans have the top player in the NCAA Tournament in kills per set (5.14) in senior Skylar Fields, an All-Pac-12 selection who is third among all NCAA Division I players. Setter Mia Tuaniga was also an all-conference pick.
USC, a six-time national champion in women’s volleyball, can reach a regional for the first time since 2017 with a win Saturday.
Brian McInnis covers the state's sports scene for Spectrum News Hawaii. He can be reached at brian.mcinnis@charter.com.