Men’s volleyball to compete in nationals
On Tuesday, the 13th-ranked Utah State University men’s volleyball club began the 1,100-mile trip to Kansas City, Mo., where the National Intramural-Recreational Sports Association National Championship is being held.
Tournament play begins Thursday and will continue through Saturday. Seeding for pool play is based on national rankings for the 64 teams competing. There will be 16 pools of four teams; the top 16 teams in the country will have the No. 1 seed in their pool. The pools will be shuffled for play on Friday based on Thursday’s results.
After pool play Friday, the top 16 teams will be placed into one bracket, the next 16 teams into a second bracket, and four teams will be placed in brackets based on their pool play standing. Four brackets of 16 teams each will compete in the single elimination tournament on Saturday.
The Aggies are facing eight to 10 teams they have seen before, including Washington State University and Weber State University. Most teams will be from the East or Midwest, said coach and player Greg Jorgenson.
Jorgenson said the team feels it has a good chance of doing well. He said the Mountain West Conference is known as the toughest conference in the nation.
“We won’t see anyone tougher than [Utah Valley State College] or [University of Arizona],” said Jorgenson. “We hung with those teams, so we should do well.”
Injuries have been a factor for the team this last month. Jorgenson broke his finger in practice several weeks ago, taking him out of his position of setter. Jorgenson said though his finger is not completely healed, he has been setting since the conference championship. For the nationals, the team is going back to its original lineup, with Jorgenson setting.
“I hope it won’t be affected,” said Jorgenson of his finger. “The only thing I’m worried about is blocking and if I take one off the top of it.”
Outside hitter Keith Croft is also injured and will be missing the tournament. Jorgenson said Croft suffered an elbow injury and is still waiting for test results to come back.
In addition to injuries, Jorgenson said the team has a player who will not be able to travel because of school obligations.
In spite of injuries, Jorgenson said he still thinks the team will have a good chance.
“We’ll be a contender for sure,” Jorgenson said.