Men’s V-ball heads to UVSC

Landon Olson

Today and Saturday, the USU men’s volleyball club will play in its second tournament of the semester.

Starting today, the team will play at Utah Valley State College in Provo. This tournament is not an official conference tournament, but is part of the regular season. Matches played last semester were part of the pre-season, while matches occurring this semester are regular season.

Traditionally the tournament at UVSC is a big tournament, but with a revamped conference only eight to 12 teams are expected, said team member Greg Jorgenson. The teams attending the tournament will be primarily from in-state, though a few out-of-state teams are expected.

Today’s play will have the teams split into pools to play a round-robin format. Matches will consist of the best two out of three games. Pool play will determine the seeding for double elimination Saturday.

The team is fairly confident about their chances in Provo, Jorgenson said. They are not really worried about anyone except UVSC, and maybe the University of Utah.

“We have dominated the conference to this point,” he said.

USU has played UVSC once this year and lost in the championship game at the University of Utah tournament. USU has also lost to Utah.

Utah State is part of the Mountain West Volleyball Conference, which includes teams from Utah, Idaho, Colorado, Arizona, Nevada and Wyoming. USU is in Division 2, while UVSC is in Division I. The divisions are based upon membership, not necessarily the size of the school or their performance, Jorgenson said. Utah State is ranked No. 11 in Division 2.

One difference in the team this semester is the loss of two outside hitters, he said. Two new players were brought up from the B-team to replace them.

“We are juggling our line-up a little bit,” Jorgenson said. “We performed almost as fluid last weekend [in their first tournament] as we did in the pre-season. We’re just working out the bugs.”