Club volleyball takes second place
In its first conference tournament of the season, the Utah State University men’s club volleyball A team played its way into the championship match before finishing second.
The Aggies lost the final in two games to last year’s national runner-up, the University of Colorado.
The tournament, hosted Friday and Saturday by the Air Force Academy, consisted of 12 teams from the Mountain West Volleyball Conference.
Utah State started play Friday by sweeping its pool. The Aggies beat the Colorado B team, 2-1, and the Air Force B team, 2-0. USU also beat the Salt Lake Community College A team, 2-0, in playoff between pool winners.
The Aggies opened the tournament Saturday with a 2-0 victory over the Air Force A team. In the second game, the Aggies were given an early advantage against the University of Utah.
Utah players were late to a match officiating assignment and as a result were late to play the Aggies. Utah was penalized a point for every minute late and had to forfeit the first game.
USU was able to capitalize on the penalty and defeated Utah, 2-1, moving to the championship.
A team captain Greg Jorgenson said Utah forfeiting the first game took a little away from the victory, but the Aggies are still happy with the win.
“Beating Utah does a lot for our confidence,” Jorgenson said. “They’re our in-state rival.”
Jorgenson said there were two keys to the team’s performance.
“We were passing well the whole weekend and we played well on the defensive side,” he said. “That made a big difference.”
Jorgenson said he gives much of the credit for the team’s success to defensive specialist Jake Diem.
“We couldn’t have succeeded without his passing,” Jorgenson said. “He made a monumental contribution.”
Utah State’s B team also competed, taking 10th with a 1-4 record.
B team captain Justin Keith said, “We were short handed and played with some injuries so that slowed us down.”
The B team only traveled six players, leaving it without any substitutions. Outside hitter Steve Stacey suffered a knee injury the first day, but without a backup he played out the tournament.
The Aggies will play again Saturday when they travel to Utah Valley State College for a round-robin tournament.