The first Division II team ever to win a national collegiate tournament is enjoying cult status.

ROMEOVILLE, Ill. (AP) – Dude, Lewis University’s volleyball team isn’t a bunch of tall, blond California kids. They don’t have the cash or the fancy facilities like the big schools.

There’s not even a beach in sight of this tiny suburban Chicago campus, where snowsuits are far more useful than swimsuits.

Yet here the Flyers are, cult heroes going prime time after becoming the first Division II team ever to win a national collegiate tournament.

Just how big a deal is this? Think “Hoosiers” with kneepads.

“To be not only the first team from the Midwest, but also the first Division II team to win, that just makes the story that much better,” said Ryan Stuntz, a second team All-American.

“You couldn’t write it any better as far as a Cinderella story.”

The rest of the country agrees. Since beating Brigham Young for the title Saturday night in Long Beach, Calif., the Flyers have gotten hundreds of congratulatory e-mails and phone calls – many from people they don’t even know.

And everyone wants a piece of them. The players are trying to cram interview requests in among those pesky final exams. They were honored guests at Wrigley Field on Wednesday, getting choice seats and an ovation when they were introduced on the field before the game. Even Chicago Cubs manager Dusty Baker came out to say hello.

There’s also talk about getting a photo with President Bush. “It’s unbelievable,” coach Dave Deuser said. “People that weren’t even volleyball fans or didn’t even know about Lewis were drawn to the drama of it all. “I think we made some fans out of people.”

Think of volleyball, and Division I schools in California come to mind. UCLA, of course, with its 18 national titles. Pepperdine. Southern California. UC-Santa Barbara.

In fact, before this year, there’d been a California school in every national championship match since the NCAA tournament began in 1970. And the title went to a California school all but four times.

But that’s only part of what makes Lewis’ story so appealing.

Because there are only 39 Division I and II schools with men’s volleyball programs, the NCAA allows competition between the divisions.

Fencing, rifle, women’s ice hockey, and men’s and women’s gymnastics, skiing, and water polo also have open tournaments.

That means Lewis has to compete against behemoths like UCLA. Or Ohio State, a rival in the Midwest Intercollegiate Volleyball Association. Talk about an uneven playing field. “This sport is dominated by Division I schools,” said Stuntz, from Redondo Beach, Calif., one of only two California natives on the 16-player team.

“They combined the Division II schools to get more teams. But they probably thought they’ll never really have a chance to win.”

How’d Lewis do it? The school recruits internationally and goes after U.S. players ignored by top programs. The team features players from Brazil, Mexico and Puerto Rico, along with Americans looking to prove something.

Blend that experience with a lot of heart and you have the makings of a strong program at Lewis, a Catholic university 45 minutes outside Chicago with only 4,400 students and a picturesque campus smaller than some high schools.

Lewis didn’t start its volleyball program until 1994, and two years later, the Flyers made the Final Four before losing to UCLA. Lewis went back to the Final Four in 1998, losing again to UCLA.

And this year, Lewis spent most of the year in the top five.

“Anybody who knows volleyball knows Lewis, since 1998, can beat anybody in the country,” Deuser said.

Doing it in a regular-season match is much different than doing it in the national spotlight, though.

“There’s a difference between belief and faith,” Deuser admitted. “I definitely had the belief we could win. I don’t know I actually had the faith we could win.”

But Lewis upset Pepperdine in the semifinals, becoming just the second Midwest school ever to reach the championship match.

Then the Flyers beat top-seeded BYU, a two-time national champion with a student body of almost 31,000.

Two days later, the Lewis players still couldn’t bring themselves to take off their national championship T-shirts.

“You always set the goal as high as you can. But there’s always some sort of, “What if? What if?”‘ said co-captain James Elsea, the other California player.

“But we actually did it. We did everything we set out to do and we did it well.”

AP-ES-05-07-03 1748EDT