Women’s club volleyball snags third in first tourney

On Saturday, Oct. 8, the women’s club volleyball team played its first tournament, in Athens at the University of Georgia Fall Club Volleyball Tournament. Of the 15 girls on the team, eight competed against Division I schools to place third for the overall tournament. A strong offense combined with a convincing stamina almost landed the girls in the championships.

They competed against the Kennesaw State University A team, where they won one game and lost the other; the Furman University B team, where they won both games; and finally Florida State University, where they lost both games.

“The girls never gave up when we were playing and always came back strong when performance started to lack,” club president and sophomore pre-nursing major Callan Bennett said. “It also helps having experienced players that are semi-predictable to play with.”

The girls started out a little slow, but in the end picked up enough speed to place second in their pool, which allowed them to enter the actual tournament. At this point, the girls had a fierce competition against UGA where they lost the first game but came back fighting to win the last two games. The team beat out UGA on their own turf, allowing them to move on to play Furman University.

“UGA ended up losing to us, which felt like a pretty big accomplishment,” Bennett said. “They are a much bigger school with a larger pool of talent to pick from so it felt good beating them in their own gym, with GC being such a small school.”

In the playoff games against the Furman University A team, GC lost, which ultimately removed them from the tournament. If they had defeated Furman, the girls would have moved on to the championships. Even though they did not make it to the championships, the girls had the advantage of having veteran players for the majority of the roster. Only one new club member came to the tournament; the rest of the girls had all been on the team last year.

“The biggest strength going into this tournament is how often we practice together,” said vice president and sophomore pre-health education major Lauren Lee. “The girls who went to the UGA Classic are the ones who have consistently been showing up to practice. It also helps that most of us are returning players from last year, so we know how one another plays.”

The club volleyball team practices every Sunday and Tuesday from 5 to 7 p.m., where the goal is to get each player’s mind right for competition and to work on passing and serving in order to prepare for upcoming tournaments. One of the problems the volleyball team faces is having to compete with a smaller roster than many other schools have.

“Our biggest weakness going into (the tournament) is the fact that we only had eight girls attend this tournament,” Lee said. “Most teams had nine to 12 girls on their roster. This was tough on us because there are only six girls on the court, and playing volleyball all day long takes a lot of energy out of you.”

According to Bennett, the next tournament will be Nov. 5 at the University of South Carolina. Aside from working on technical skills, the girls always aim to continue to beat Division 1 schools like UGA.

“Our goal in every tournament is to make it into bracket play. We want to represent our school well and show that smaller schools can still compete,” said treasurer and sophomore early-childhood education major Lindsay Hines. “We also want word about our club to get out on campus so we have more support and more people will join. We’re having a tournament at Georgia College in the spring and would love to see people come out and support us.”

For more information on upcoming events, look out for ads on GCTV or contact the girls at gcsuvball@gmail.com.

Posted by Chelsea Hinkel on Oct 20 2011. Filed under Sports. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.