The men's club volleyball team stormed into the beginning of their season, going 4-0 this past Saturday at Northeastern, where it polished off UMass-Dartmouth, UMass-Lowell, Boston University (BU), and the host team. The rookies of the squad also proved their worth on the team, turning in some solid performances.
"We were pretty happy with our results this weekend," senior captain Adam Goldfarb said. "The guys played very well."
The tournament started with a match against Northeastern, which the Jumbos won 2-1 (9-25, 25-18, 15-8). The only loss came during the first game of the match, which was somewhat of a disappointment for the squad.
"We always have a tendency to start slowly," Goldfarb said. "But the first game was upsetting. For the first game of the season, we lost [a game] to a team that we should have beaten very badly."
Despite the loss, the Jumbos went on to win the next two games and claim their first victory of the tournament.
"The loss really riled us up and we picked up the pace after that," Goldfarb commented.
The Jumbos then bumped, set, and spiked their way to a second check in the victory column by beating UMass-Dartmouth 2-0 (25-21, 25-22), and got a third after overtaking UMass-Lowell 2-0 (25-20, 25-8).
"Lowell was one of our best matches all day," Goldfarb said. "Everything really came together for us."
The Jumbos took advantage of this streak and went on to face their final opponent of the day - Boston University. The squad emerged triumphant with another 2-0 win (25-21, 25-22).
"Going into the tournament, we knew that BU would be the team to beat," senior setter Charlie Beckman said. "They tied us for third in the MIT tournament (on Sunday, Jan. 28), but this time we beat them pretty well."
"BU is a very good team," Goldfarb added. "We were expecting those to be the closest games of the day. One thing that made a difference is that two of their starters were injured, so I think it would have been more competitive had that not been the case. I was optimistic but I knew it would be challenging."
The rookies on the team got their first taste of real competition this past weekend, and the two players who have been called "the rookies to watch", freshman outside hitter Dan Coleman and sophomore middle Mike Lutz, performed up to expectations.
"The new guys did a good job," Goldfarb commented. "[Lutz] is 5-10, which is below average for a middle, but he played very well considering the height difference. He played some great defense. Coleman is a very consistent player and came through when it was needed."
Overall, the team has high expectations for this season, especially in light of its strong performance early on.
"It's going to be a very competitive league this year," Goldfarb said. "I think this first tournament is going to be a good indication for the season."
This coming Sunday, the Jumbos will face some tougher competition, including MIT, which also went 4-0 on Saturday, and Boston College. The tournament will be held at MIT.
Ski Team fights the elements
Despite the treacherous conditions, the Alpine Club Ski Team battled the elements and managed to come through with several skiers taking top-15 positions this past weekend at Berkshire East in Massachusetts.
The conditions on Saturday were too dangerous for the regular slalom competition to be finished, so only the results from the giant slalom (GS) counted towards for the season.
"The event was cancelled halfway through," coach Paul Wang said. "The skiers that had come in had done well, so it was kind of a disappointment."
This put more pressure on Sunday's GS runs. The men's team only had one top-15 finisher, senior John Johnson, who came in 11th with a time of 1:27.47. The usually strong-finishing senior Matt Dreir just missed the top 15, ending up in the 16th position. Other strong performances came from seniors Nate Soles and Michael Krafft, who came in 20th and 29th, respectively. Compared to earlier races, this was a sub-par performance for the men's team.
"It was a really hectic weekend," Wang said. "I don't think that there was really anything else to it."
Despite the poor showing, the men's squad was able to hold on to their third place ranking in the Thompson Division standings.
On the women's side, the "fantastic four", comprised of juniors Erin Boucher and captain Kate Meierdiercks and freshmen Courtney Benson and Sophie Dabuzhsky were all able to seize top-15 positions, with Benson coming in seventh, Meierdiercks in ninth, Dabuzhsky in 12th, and Boucher in 13th. Sophomore Anne Marie Braun was next in the line-up, taking the 20th spot.
Even though the women were able to seize four of the top-15 positions, Green Mountain College (GMC) took first in the GS and broke free from its tie for first with the Jumbo squad, moving Tufts down to second place.
"You kind of expect that GMC will take first if all of their people finish their runs," Wang said. "It's only when they make a mistake that we can really move in. GMC had perfect runs."
This coming weekend, the Jumbos will head to Mt. Snow in Vermont to finishing off the regular season.
