Men's V-ball taken down

Mental flaccidity yields poor match results

Thudding, grunting, and sqeaking echoed through Phillips Gym as the men's club volleyball team crashed, tumbled and dove around the room in an effort to beat Case Western Reserve University last Sunday. The Yeomen succumbed after three games to lose the match and watch their even record fall to 2-3.

"We played like crap," captain senior Rich Kong said. "It was real disappointing."

"It's not that we weren't ready," junior BJ Johnson said. "We weren't mentally playing and volleyball is such a mental game. Now the team realizes how mental the game is." Johnson atrributed part of the concentration lapse to the lateness of their opponent. Case Western showed up at two, the scheduled start-time for the match, so everything was delayed 45 minutes. "We were mad and that started it off badly," Johnson said.

The team almost gave the first game to Case with many frustrating mistakes and even a few shanked serves. The Yeomen were down 5-1 before Johnson could receive a good set to pound home a deep spike to bring it to 5-2. Opportunities like this were few though, as the team ended up down 15-5 before switching sides for the second game.

The men came out with a vengence in the scond game, fighting tooth and nail to match Case point for point, soon getting up 5-2 after a kill from senior Steve Papavasilopoulous. After a few more minutes of play, some Case turnovers and another kill from Papavasilopoulous, the Yeoman found themselves up 8-3.

At this point Case Western battled back to overcome the Yeoman lead and tie the game at 9-9. Then a long struggle ensued, sending players all over the court as every point became crucial and every pass, set and hit set off itchy trigger-finger reactions with Yeomen and Spartans careening every which way to try and break the tie. Case seemed to get fed up with this after a few points and quickly ended the game 15-12.

The third game was a long brutal collection of side-outs, with errors aplenty on both sides, that Case scratched a 7-1 lead out of. The Yeomen gained a few points, but saw the scoreboard reveal a final score of 15-4 in favor of Case.

The loss was exceptionally frustrating because the team feels they have beaten other teams better than Case. "They were the worst team we've played all year," Johnson said.

This Saturday the Yeomen travel to Kent State University to try and pull out a victory while playing with a depleted squad. "Sometimes it's better that way," Kong said, "because then everybody really has to play well. We'll have to gell and feel united because it's just six on the floor with no subs and that's it."

"It's going to go well," Johnson said. "We'll be missing starters so we'll realize we have to step up."

You can't bring me down:Junior BJ Johnson slams one deep against Case. (photo by Dave Bechhoefer)