Men’s Vollyba;; heads to Nationals
After an eighth-place finish in the Mountain West Volleyball Conference Championships, confidence is high for the Utah State men’s club team.
“On the way home everyone was in good spirits and having a good time,” A team captain Adam Longmore said. “It’s good we’re still up. We should have confidence going into nationals.”
Both the Aggie A and B teams traveled to North Arizona University for the conference championship Friday and Saturday.
The tournament is the Aggies’ last competition before competing at nationals in Dallas, Texas, April 18, 19 and 20.
“At this point every match we get is that much more preparation for nationals,” Longmore said.
Each Aggie team played seven matches in the two-day tournament. Pool play was held Friday and teams were separated into brackets for tournament play Saturday.
In pool play, the A team lost to the University of Utah, 2-0, before rebounding to beat NAU, 2-1, and Southern Utah University, 2-0. The A team finished second in its pool.
The B team defeated the Salt Lake Community College A team, 2-1, before falling to the University of Colorado, 2-0, and the University of Arizona C team, 2-0, to finish third it its pool.
Following pool play, second and third place pool finishers were matched up in a challenge match and the Utah State teams drew each other.
The A team defeated the B team, 2-0, but suffered an injury to middle blocker Joe Anderson.
Anderson sprained his ankle in the match, but continued playing through the remainder of the tournament.
With the victory, the A team moved into the gold bracket while the B team moved into the silver bracket.
In the first round, the A team faced off against Utah again, and once against lost 2-0.
“We didn’t play our game,” Longmore said. “We made hitting errors that were not usual for us and we made blocking mistakes that were not usual for us.”
In the second match against the University of Colorado, the A team was ahead 22-18 in the first game, but Colorado made a comeback to win, 25-22. The Aggies lost to Colorado in two games.
“Something happened after the first game and it felt like nobody cared,” Longmore said.
In its final game the A team lost to the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, 2-0, for the eighth-place finish.
“The competition was a lot tougher than we’ve faced before,” Longmore said.
After losing the challenge match, the B team fared better in its bracket. In a rematch against the SLCC A team, the Aggies lost 2-1, but went on to defeat NAU 2-1, and SLCC B, 2-0.
The B team finished fifth in its bracket.
Despite falling off Saturday and not finishing as high as hoped, Longmore said the team is still looking good to finish the season.
“We won’t let it affect our play mentally or physically going to nationals,” he said. “That was just one day. We play three days at nationals and every day will be another day.”