Men’s v-ball suffers upset
Utter shock.
It’s what Head Coach Adam Longmore said he saw on the faces of his players following being upset at the Division II Sport Club Championship.
The No. 3 men’s club volleyball team went in with high expectations – and was living up to them until Saturday’s upset.
“I didn’t know what to tell them,” Longmore said. “I didn’t suspect it would happen. It never crossed by mind.”
After missing an officiating assignment in the morning – teams not playing officiate other matches – the Aggies were penalized by forfeiting a game in their first match in the championship bracket.
“We flat made a mistake, and it cost us,” Longmore said. “We showed up Saturday morning not very prepared.”
Although Utah State nearly fought back in the second game, they fell 25-21 to Columbia. The Aggies finished tied for ninth, the same place they finished last season.
Looking at the matches that followed USU’s, Longmore said he thinks the Aggies could have made it to the championship match.
“We’ll never know, with this fluke of a loss, how we would have finished,” Longmore said.
Starting the tournament Thursday with pool play, the Aggies swept their matches, defeating San Francisco State University 25-19, 22-25, 17-15, the Rochester Institute of Technology, 25-20, 25-15, and the University of Wisconsin-Platteville, 21-25, 25-22, 19-17.
In Friday’s second round of pool play, Utah State continued its strong play, going 3-0 in its matches and 6-1 in its games. The Aggies opened with a 25-17, 25-17 victory over Carnegie Mellon University and continued by beating Southern Illinois 25-13, 25-17 and Ohio Northern 21-25, 25-22, 15-19.
“Friday we really looked good, I thought,” Longmore said. “We got better as the weekend went on.”
The pool play sweeps allowed the Aggies to advance to the championship bracket where they suffered the unexpected loss.
The No. 1 and No. 2 teams, Milwaukee Area Technical College and Lakeland College, met in the championship. MATC swept Lakeland 25-21 and 25-22 to win the title.
-slbk5@cc.usu.edu