When the USA men played Poland in Volleyball Nations League on Wednesday, Matthew Knigge had four kills, an ace and a block.
On the surface, stats not normally worth noting.
But in Knigge’s case, and in the case of the men’s college volleyball world, it was a really big deal.
Knigge, a 6-foot-7 middle blocker from New Egypt, New Jersey — which is about halfway between New York City and Philadelphia and in terms of central New Jersey and/or men’s volleyball in the middle of nowhere — went to Vassar.
Vassar is in Division III and, well there haven’t been too many DIII players in the USA national-team gym, so much as one who started a Volleyball Nations League match.
Knigge got into the USA gym for the first time last summer, but was injured and unable to make the most of it.
So this year, “To get the call, after a good European season — I had a really good European season — and to be physically healthy and in the gym and starting to play the level you know you can play at, it’s like a moment in a movie when the clouds start to clear and you see the sun for the first time,” Knigge said with a laugh.
“So it’s just a special moment of feeling honored to be coming from where I’m coming from, but then also understanding that the job is not done.”
We talked after practice two weeks ago in Anahaim, a few days before coach John Speraw announced the Olympic team. Knigge was certainly not going to be one of the dozen plus an alternate going to Paris, but everyone knew that another group of players would go to Antalya, Türkiye, for the first round of VNL.
The USA got swept by Poland and plays again Friday against France and finishes with Bulgaria on Saturday and Türkiye on Sunday.
All of which represented a tremendous opportunity for Knigge.
Since his last season at Vassar, the 27-year-old has played a pro season for FC Schüttorf in Germany, two seasons for Arenal Emeve Lugo in Spain, three seasons for Club Voleibol Guaguas in the Canary Islands, and the past two seasons for SVG Lüneburg in Germany.
Next year he said he will play for Berlin Recycling Volleys.
Which might have been the last thing you could have expected.
Knigge played four sports at tiny New Egypt High School, where volleyball was not an option.
Baseball was his favorite, but at 16, he said, “is when I made that switch to volleyball. I was playing on four teams every year, multiple practices every day, with multiple games on a weekend. And that was a life for my parents and myself, and also my sister was a good softball player. That’s just what we did.
“At 15, I had some elbow issues (he was a pitcher/first baseman) and I was good, but I made the decision. It was painful for me to play and I didn’t get the same joy out of playing anymore and I needed to stop. I remember having that conversation with my mom and she said, ‘Now what are you going to do?’ Not playing something wasn’t an option.
“And we had just had our first unit in gym class about volleyball.”
He liked volleyball right away. He and his parents found a club that had boys volleyball in north Jersey, “and from my freshman year through high school we would drive up two hours every Sunday morning, do our three-hour practice, and that was my exposure I had to volleyball.”
As a late arriver to volleyball, his college options were limited.
“I was at the top of my class (academically) in high school and I knew I was a good volleyball player, but did I ever think I would end up here? Absolutely not.”
He applied to Harvard, Princeton and MIT.
“I was just low enough volleyball-wise that volleyball wasn’t getting me in and I was just low enough academically that academics wasn’t getting me in. I got rejected by Harvard and Princeton and MIT told me I wasn’t good enough at math.”
At Vassar he excelled from the start.
“I still had no exposure to organized volleyball at that point,” he said, but as a freshman, Knigge led the team in blocks and hitting percentage.
“That first year I probably put on 30 pounds of muscle. I was skinny and the same height I am now. I came into my freshman year 6-7 and probably 170 and now I’m probably 220.”
As a sophomore, he became the sixth AVCA DIII first-team All-American in Vassar history, finishing third in the nation in both hitting percentage (.502) and blocks per set (1.25). As a junior in 2017, he led the nation in blocks (1.22) and his team in kills with 344 (2.89/set). That continued through his senior year for Vassar when Knigge was second nationally in blocks per set (1.30) and second in kills (4.33/set) while hitting .356.
When he graduated he got a Fulbright scholarship, “and even then I didn’t think I was going to play volleyball. I had a Fulbright opportunity to go to Ukraine. I was a Russian and international economics major, and had an invitation to study in Kyiv … I pretty much thought I was going to Kyiv that fall.
“Only to get a letter (from the State Department) a couple of weeks before graduation saying ‘We’re so sorry but the money we thought we had for this position doesn’t exist any more.’ And I’m watching all my friends making life decisions and I was pretty much there with my butt flapping in the wind.”
Knigge had traveled a lot and even had spent time living Russia.
“And at that point I was a pretty good volleyball player and I knew the opportunity existed to play professional volleyball. I didn’t really know what that looked like.”
Knigge, who speaks Russian, had a strong first season at FC Schüttorf, where many of his teammates were Polish.
He decided to play at least one more year, which led him to Spain.
“One more year and then I’ll go back and get a job,” he recalled thinking.
But in Spain he got even better and even forced himself to learn Spanish.
“And we had an incredible season,” he said.
Which got him an offer to play for Club Voleibol Guaguas in the Canary Islands and he stayed three years.
This season, SVG Lüneburg got into the Champions League and finished second in the CEV Cup. Knigge was one of four Americans on the team that included libero Gage Worsley (Hawai’i), middle Blake Leeson (Ohio State) and outside Matt Slivinski (DIII Carthage).
“This year playing Champions League was the first time that I was making enough money from volleyball and I was at a high enough level where the decision was no longer that maybe I’ll just play one more year,” Knigge said and smiled.
“Now I play volleyball.”
