The men's volleyball club came out strong on Sunday at the Interdivisional tournament at Yale University but, plagued by injuries, the squad failed to move on to the semifinals. After three tough matches, the Jumbos were tied with Wesleyan and Stonehill College at 1-2 each in the A-Pool of the tournament.
After Wesleyan forfeited the tiebreak match, only Stonehill remained for the Jumbos to overcome. But this proved easier said than done as Tufts fell to Stonehill, ending the Jumbos' chances at the semifinals. Columbia University, another participant in the tournament, advanced to the semifinals with a 3-0 record after defeating Tufts, Stonehill and Wesleyan.
Moving on to the semifinal round, Stonehill faced Yale, the host school and leader of the B- Pool, and lost 2-0. Later in the tournament, after defeating Tufts, Wesleyan and Stonehill in the preliminaries, the Columbia Lions nabbed another win tally with a 2-0 victory over MIT, and yet another in the finals, rolling over Yale 2-0 for the tournament title.
The Jumbos faced several problems during the Interdivisional tournament, including two injuries that hurt the team in later games. The first injury took down starting senior Hadi El-Heneidi early in the match, requiring a trip to the mergency room for x-rays. Junior Jeremy Maggin explained how the initial injury affected the team.
"We came out playing harder and better than we had all season," Maggin said. "But then, in the middle of our second game in our match against Stonehill, [El-Heneidi] came down and rolled his ankle. Paramedics brought him to a nearby hospital, thinking he had broken it. After that, we shifted some players around and continued with the game."
Even with one starter out, the Jumbos managed to beat Stonehill the first time the teams met, and looked strong going into their next game against Wesleyan. The match started out well, but the Jumbos were soon faced with another hurt player, graduate student Ramon-Carlo Galicia. Galicia pulled a calf muscle and left the game. With two players out, the team began to falter, and Wesleyan took advantage of the weakness to beat the Jumbos and force a tie in the standings.
"After the injury in the first Stonehill game, we figured we'd be okay," Maggin said. "But when one of our outside hitters pulled his calf, our morale started to go downhill and our playing reflected that."
The sudden-death match against Stonehill that occurred after Wesleyan forfeited marked the end of the Jumbos' tournament. The loss of the two starters was the definite factor in the defeat, as the team had beaten Stonehill easily twice before.
"It was a disappointment, especially because we seemed to finally have gelled as a team," Senior captain Colin Pedersen said.
"We were playing on the same page, putting up blocks, and racking up the kills. [Senior] Mike Toomey's sets were good, the outside hitting by Jeremy Maggin, Ramon Galicia, [senior] Kellan Gregory and myself was strong, the middles were dominant, and the back row defense by [senior] Jeff McMahon and [freshman] Steve Poon was solid. Everything seemed to fit, and just at that moment we lost two of our starters."
Although the result of the Interdivisional at Yale was not the boost in strength and confidence that the Jumbos were searching for, the team is not out of chances just yet. With any luck, the injured starters will be playing again soon, allowing the team to practice as a whole and regain some of their chemistry
The Jumbos have a solid core of players, and with all starters on the court they should be able to improve their record as the season continues. Still, this weekend's bad luck and subsequent poor showing put a difficult obstacle on the team's road to any postseason play. A quick recovery by the injured starters will have to be complemented by a gain of strength on the court if the team is to have a chance of competing in the Championships on April 2 and 3.
