Club volleyball take on 10 teams
The USU men’s volleyball club left for Spring Break early Wednesday to travel to Tucson, Ariz., for its final tournament before the conference championships.
The conference tournament, hosted by the University of Arizona, will include approximately eight to 10 teams, including the University of Arizona, Northern Arizona University, the University of Utah and Weber State University, said USU coach Greg Jorgenson. Utah State will play today and tomorrow.
This afternoon, USU will participate in pool play to establish seeding for Saturday’s single-elimination bracket.
Outside hitter Keith Croft said the team expects to do better than it did two weeks ago at the University of Utah, where it tied for fifth.
“If we play well, we can beat anyone,” Croft said. “Arizona and Utah will be our biggest challenges.”
Croft said Arizona is ranked first among Division 1 teams in the conference. USU is ranked 10th among Division 2 teams.
This is the first tournament the team has traveled a long distance to attend. The drive to Tucson is approximately 14 hours, but Croft said it will be nice to have the team away from home without any outside distractions.
Last weekend at Weber State, USU played with both an A and B team, but Croft said they normally do not play with a B team. Croft said B team players are improving quite a bit, but instead of being the B team, now they are just a part of the team.
“Lots of guys from B play bit parts [on the A team],” Croft said.
He said some B team members are better passers, and the A team has some better hitters. Playing with the team combined helps them out, Croft said.
USU will play next in the conference championships at the University of Las Vegas, Nev., March 30 and 31. After that, nationals will be April 11-14 in Kansas City, Mo.
Before the conference championship, USU has tentatively scheduled two home matches March 20 and 24. Opponents for these matches have not been determined, but Croft said they will probably play Ricks College in one and possibly a Utah school in the other.