Hoosier-Illini Classic

The weekend began quickly and moderately successful as we beat Ohio State in the first game, but eventually lost the match in a closely contested third game that was tied at 9-9. This is the largest and most competitive tournament of the season as teams travel from across the country to compete and the champion traditionally will go on to the NIRSA National Championship Division I finals. We played poorly against Marquette in our second match and beat Indiana B, but just couldn't find the momentum to make it a great weekend. We have the talent, height and skill level to be successful and we will be prepared for the national tournament in Kansas City, MO in April because of the tough schedule we play all year. After a night off from practice Monday, we will get back at it tonight.

MIVA

Our first two days in the MIVA league took their toll both coaching and playing. I am learing to manage a team with greater depth, talent, and experience as well as dealing with injury and illness. We finished the first rounds of MIVA 4-3 beating the teams we should beat and continuing to learn from teams who are just as talented as we are this season. We have a great team and it will be important to peak at the right time (nationals), but we do have a lot of work to do prior to the Hoosier-Illini Classic. We played some of the best defense I have seen from a B-W team since I played and honestly, this team is better defensively. We will work on some individual techniques in practice this week, setting, arm position (hitting), and defensive position to prepare us for the tough matches to come. The positive, we play more Division I teams than Division II and III which prepares us everyday for the NIRSA National Tournament in Kansas City, MO.

3rd Place...we are finding the rhythm.

We came out with energy and as a team with their eyes on a championship and while we fell just short of a championship, we continue to improve each day. We shuffled the line-up moving Jake to OH and starting Danny and Jeh in the middle. We were a little short handed as a few people had academic commitments and an illness, but we persevered and played hard which allowed everybody to get some valuable playing time. During pool play gave up more than 18 points only once and held our opponents to an average of 15 points in each game. In the first match of the Gold bracket the Yellow Jackets beat Eastern Michigan University 25-11, 25-21 which set the stage with another showdown with Ohio Northern University. A learning experience this match was as we never got a rhythm or found the necessary intensity level and lost 14-25, 17-25. We will face ONU a few more times this year and hope to get over the hump, but it is difficult to be disappointed when you finish the tournament 4-1 and in 3rd place. Next week at BGSU for MIVA Conference play.