Meet Jordan Lucas, Cal State Northridge volleyball's master of on-court celebrations

Cal State Northridge junior Jordan Lucas has gained widespread attention — both positive and negative — for his celebrations. Chuck Marvel / CSUN Athletics Share articleJordan Lucas isn’t hiding from anyone. The California State Northridge volleyball player, who has gone viral for his eccentric celebrations, is who he is: a gay athlete comfortable in his skin since coming out at 16. “Everyone knows, so it’s like, ‘I might as well give them a show,’” Lucas told The Athletic. The 22-year-old Lucas has become a viral sensation of late, as highlight videos and TikToks of his on-court behavior rack up millions of views. He snaps emphatically after a dig or kill, sways his hips, whips his head, wags his index finger — whatever fits the moment. Attention has followed, both positive and negative, though he says it has been overwhelmingly positive. The Human Rights Campaign, an LGBTQ+ advocacy group, has reached out. Billy Porter, the first openly gay Black man nominated for a Primetime Emmy as a lead actor, has reached out. Fans now ask for pictures. Men’s volleyball trails the women’s game in stature. There are roughly 70 NCAA Division I and II men’s programs combined, while 64 schools compete in the women’s Division I postseason tournament alone. Men’s programs have shuttered across the country, including at Grand Canyon University in April of 2025, where Lucas began his college career and helped lead the Lopes to the 2024 Final Four. So Lucas celebrates every chance he gets in an attempt to inject energy into a sport he believes needs it. “I always tell people that I play volleyball, obviously because I love the sport, but also for entertainment,” Lucas said. “I do it to entertain crowds. If you come to a volleyball match or any sporting event, you want to be entertained. People pay to be entertained. They don’t want to watch something boring and stale. “If that flair, those antics, can help the sport grow in any capacity, I’m glad I’ve been able to do that.” i can't stop watching this vid of this northridge college volleyball beast diva lolll pic.twitter.com/6iQSufWocc — me (@boltsfood) April 15, 2026 Northridge head coach Theo Edwards says his 6-foot-3 redshirt junior outside hitter’s energy sets the tone of the Matadors, who are currently 12-14 on the season. “If you look at him compete, he’s probably one of the biggest and toughest competitors on our team,” Edwards said. “He’s an absolute animal in terms of the way that he pushes the guys. He brings a level of energy and fire that, at times, this team has really lacked.” The Hacienda Heights, Calif., native did not pick up volleyball until age 13, though he was no stranger to courts or competition. He just came from a family that put the ball through nets instead of hitting them over. While his grandfather played football at the United States Naval Academy, the rest of the family leaned into basketball. His father played at Hawaiʻi, and his brother at Oregon State and Nevada. His father later coached high school basketball, and Lucas absorbed both the competitiveness and the showmanship of those teams. Still, basketball was never Lucas’ “cup of tea.” The girls volleyball team had the court before his father’s practices, and Lucas was invited to help. That was enough. The sport took hold, and he quickly began to dominate club and high school circuits. His high school career, split between Los Altos and Upland, produced a litany of accolades and a CIF state championship with Upland in 2022. On the club circuit, he was a U-19 Youth National Training Team member and was named to VolleyballMag’s Top 25 Underclassmen list in 2021. All the while, beginning around age 15, Lucas celebrated every big play, making sure opponents felt it. He says he was even more unrestrained then. But he began to wonder if, despite his ability, it was affecting his recruitment. “When you see people committing to different colleges,” Lucas said, “and you’re not getting as many looks or as much attention, it kind of begs the question, ‘Well, if it’s not my play and it’s not my talent, what is it?’” Men’s volleyball coaches can begin recruiting a player during their sophomore year, a period that coincided with COVID-19 for Lucas. Though he said he received offers from Hawaiʻi, GCU, and Penn State, he chose to wait until restrictions lifted so he could visit campuses and meet coaches face-to-face. He found acceptance in the Arizona desert. Lucas appeared in 50 of 61 matches over two seasons in Phoenix, helping GCU reach the 2024 NCAA semifinals. He earned the NCAA Elite 90 Award, given to the student-athlete with the highest academic standard at the championship site, and was named to the MPSF All-Academic team. Then, on April 28, 2025, the Lopes announced they were demoting the men’s volleyball program to a club sport amid a “rapidly evolving college athletics landscape.” Lucas left GCU, and left volleyball entirely to travel the world and explore the edges of his identity. He says he’s visited 15 countries to date. He briefly trained with the Filipino national team that summer, but the experience did not reignite the spark. “I just didn’t feel like I was as present as I should have been for that experience,” Lucas said. “Once I got back from the Philippines, I was like, ‘OK, let me go find who I really am.’” It was not until last October, when he saw his peers preparing for fall scrimmages and practices, that something stirred. The boy who once turned away from basketball in favor of volleyball resurfaced. “I knew what an athlete he was and how talented he was,” the Northridge coach said. “It was more about him adapting to our system and understanding how we play … In all the best ways, it was about him learning what we do and what our university is like, and giving him the opportunity to blossom.” After redshirting in 2025 and returning home to Southern California to rebuild his form, Lucas has emerged as one of Northridge’s key contributors. His 141 kills rank second on the team, trailing only 2025 AVCA All-America First Team opposite hitter Jalen Phillips, who has 291. “Those are two of our guys who have been the backbone of us offensively,” Edwards said. “To a certain extent, we’ll live and die by them this season.” Lucas’ signature celebrations remain as expressive as ever. The audience is what grew. He estimates the response online to be 85 percent positive. When volunteer UC Irvine commentator Charlie Brande took aim at Lucas’ antics during an April 9 matchup between the schools, it barely shifted. Tied at 21, Lucas watched an Irvine player drift helplessly onto his side of the net in a failed attempt to save a ball, a sequence that gave Northridge the lead. Lucas flipped his wrist, pointed, and strutted away. “I’m amazed Jordan Lucas hasn’t been popped by somebody,” Brande said on the broadcast. “The antics he’s making under the net, it’s very distasteful.” Brande later issued an apology through the UC Irvine men’s volleyball team’s social media account for the “damage it may have caused.” UC Irvine athletic director Stacey King later reinforced the response. A post shared by UC Irvine Men’s Volleyball (@ucimvb) “His comments during the broadcast do not reflect the standards associated with our events or programs,” King wrote in a statement to Outsports. “… He will not be participating in future broadcasts.” Lucas is used to his style of play eliciting a reaction. “Everyone has their perspective or take on my style of game,” he said. “It’s really interesting to have someone say that on national television about another person or athlete.” But he’s not going to stop celebrating. Since coming out in his teenage years, he’s always felt empowered just to be himself on the court. “Starting from 14, it was a lot of just love, and a lot of like, ‘Oh my gosh. I love the way that you play,’ ” Lucas said. “‘I love how flamboyant you are,’ whatever the word may be.” Even after becoming a viral sensation, he remains truly himself. No matter which words people choose to use to describe his game. Spot the pattern. Connect the terms Find the hidden link between sports terms Devon Henderson is a staff writer for The Athletic. He has covered the Summer Olympics, College Football Playoffs, and the Men's Final Four while at Arizona State University and was an intern at the Southern California News Group, where he covered the Los Angeles Rams, Los Angeles Chargers, Los Angeles Sparks, and LAFC. Follow Devon on Twitter @HendersonDevon_