Idaho men’s club volleyball team secures win against WSU
Three solid sets of play was all it took for the Idaho men’s club volleyball team to come out on top Friday against Washington State.
Although the Cougars jumped out to a couple of early leads in the first two sets, the Vandals were able to rally behind key plays from their defense to gain the lead.
“It’s great when we can get a win like this under our belt a month before Nationals,” said Wesley Sjoerdsma, president and coach of the team. “We have a promising young team and I feel like we are capable of competing with anyone in our division.”
The Vandals moved up to Division 2 AA this year, one division higher than last year. It is also one division below the highest competed at the tournament.
Sjoerdsma said he knows the competition is going to be tougher, but their team is stronger this year. He said a point of emphasis for the team leading up to this season was improving on passing off services.
“If we can do that, then we will be in the best position to go deep in the tournament,” Sjoerdsma said of the team’s passing.
The Vandals competed in the regional tournament earlier this year, finishing in fourth place.
Sjoerdsma said the team’s future plans include winning the regional tournament.
“We’re keeping a lot of our players for next season,” Sjoerdsma said. “With the exception of a couple of our Brazilians who are going back home, we’ll be the same team.”
The veteran group of guys should better the team’s chances of achieving their goal of winning the regional tournament. One of the newer players is Tanner Haage, who is a first-year player as well as the team’s setter.
“It’s always nice having guys who can get up there and score for us when we need it,” Haage said. “It’s not much fun setting the ball to no one. It’s like shooting a basketball at nothing.”
Austin Chmelik, a third-year player, made a huge impact in the game Friday evening. In the second set, the match was tied at 17 when Chmelik picked up a kill to give the Vandals the lead.
Afterward, it was all Vandals as they went on to solidify the sweep and take the next step toward their goal of winning nationals.
Zack Ozuna can be reached at [email protected]