Volleyball team stopped

The Oberlin men's club volleyball team continued to be competitive at last weekend's tournament at the College of Wooster.

Ten players drove in two cars and arrived just in time for a two-hour wait, before their first game due to miscommunication between planning officials.The team is forced to rely fully on the players for transportation, food, laundry and even pre-home game setup at the gym. Last year, women's volleyball head coach Penny Graves helped out the team and took care of some of these extras. This year, the team is on its own.

The players finally got on the court, but lost their first two games to Wittenberg University, coming up scoreless in the first one. They then found their stride and surged back to win the next two, but it was for naught. Oberlin lost the last game, and thus the match, by only a few points.

After the Wittenberg match, the team beat the College of Wooster in their first game, although they quickly lost momentum and lost the next three games. Wooster took the match.

The team remained enthusiastic and believed they had maintained good intensity throughout this match. "Guys were diving all over the place," said senior Austin Kerr, "We definitely struggled, but we still believe we're good."

"We just gotta play a lot more and jell a lot more as a team," said player-coach sophomore Sam Chung.

The team was without senior Ryuji Iwasaki, a powerful off-hand hitter, but Kerr played well at strong-side hitter and made up the difference.

Next weekend the team will play at Ohio Wesleyan University and then play in the finals at a tournament the following weekend. The men are also thinking of hosting another home game. "We had a really good turnout," said Robb Stolberg, OC'95 of last weekend's home game against Case Western Reserve University.

"The tournament is within reach," said Kerr, "Everyone will play hard and everyone's heart is there, if we can just get a bit of focus in guys' heads, we'll be really good. Of course, you're only as good as your last game, but we can bring it all together."