Last weekend, the men's club volleyball team competed in the New England Regional Championships at the University of New Hampshire. After coming into the tournament ranked fourth in New England, the team lost a tough match against Boston College in the semi-finals and finished a disappointing third place overall for the weekend.
"It [BC] was the worst match we've played in a real long time" senior captain David Chang said.
"With the exception of a few moments, we played pretty poorly," senior captain Adam Goldfarb added. "But we have to give credit to BC. They played really well and should be ranked in the top five at nationals."
On Saturday, the team started the tournament as the top seed in its five-team pool. In a best of three matches format, Tufts beat Wesleyan, Providence College, and Amherst College before losing to Boston University. The team's finished second in the pool with a 3-1 record, qualifying for the playoffs on Sunday.
On Sunday morning, Tufts beat Plymouth State College in a preliminary round match, securing a spot in the quarterfinals against Yale. After winning that game, the team found itself up against BC - which it had defeated last year to win the New England championship - in the semis.
This year, however, the team could not get by the Eagles, despite beating them twice during the regular season.
"Last year was our golden year; we were undefeated and won New England's," Goldfarb said. "This year was a little tough; we did a lot of reshuffling of players."
The team, under the leadership of senior captains Goldfarb, Chang, and Charlie Beckman, departed yesterday for the National Tournament in Kansas City, MO. The squad left Tufts ranked in the top 15 of the 64 teams.
A tale of two teammates
Chang and Goldfarb have played together for the last four years and are not only teammates and leaders on the court, but great friends as well.Goldfarb, who played two years of competitive volleyball in high school, came to Tufts because of its location and because he was an aspiring pre-veterinary major.
Chang played recreational volleyball before coming to Tufts to be an International Relations and Quantitative Economics major. Living in Monte Carlo and then Paris, he grew up playing beach volleyball. It wasn't until his junior and senior year of high schools, when he came to the United States, that he first took part in organized volleyball.
Both Chang and Goldfarb were unsure at first if they were going to play volleyball at Tufts. Goldfarb, after playing with the team outdoors, started going to practices and eventually joined. Both he and Chang enjoy the club atmosphere grew attached to the team from the start. Chang started freshman year as defensive specialist, but has been a right side hitter from his sophomore year to now, earning All New England honors sophomore and junior years.
Sophomore and junior years went well for Goldfarb, as he played solidly in the middle hitter position. During the tandem's sophomore and junior years, the team won New Englands and finished ninth at nationals both seasons. In preparation for this year, both seniors trained regularly during summer and winter breaks.
This year has gone well for Goldfarb, Chang, and the volleyball team. Although disappointed about the outcome of New Englands, the team hopes to finish strongly at Nationals.
"This season we were flying high on our performance from last year, and we were expecting to repeat it," Chang said. "But the dynamics just weren't there."
