On Sunday, February 12th, Cortland Mens Club Volleyball traveled to Syracuse for a tournament.
In this tournament, they competed against nine other schools, the University of Ottawa, the University of Binghamton, Stony Brook University, the University of Buffalo, Cornell University, Hofstra University, Syracuse University, Rochester Institute of Technology, and Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. For each round of the tournament, every one played best of three sets unless two sets were won in a row.
In the first round of the tournament, Cortland took on the University of Ottawa and took them to three sets. In the first set, Cortland started the tournament with a close first set where they won 25-23. For the following two sets, Cortland lost 23-25 and 12-15.
The second round was played against Binghamton University and lasted three sets. In the first set, Cortland lost 21-25 to Binghamton. Cortland then fought back in the next set with a win of 25-19. In the last set, they weren’t able to continue the momentum with a loss of 10-15.
For the third round, the boys competed with Stony Brook University and played for three sets. In the first game, Cortland lost to Stony Brook 17-25, then in the second round, they pulled through with a winning set of 26-24. They then played hard in the final set of the round and lost 11-15.
In the fourth and final round of the tournament before playoffs, Cortland played Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. The first game of the set was a tight battle between the two games, but Cortland wasn’t able to pull in with a win and lost 21-25. Cortland put in the same effort trying to fight for a win and lost again with the same score of 21-25, sadly not allowing them to play in the playoffs.
Cortland played hard this tournament and with that effort, it placed them in 9th at the tournament in Syracuse. Vice President of Men’s Volleyball Ben Gardener said
“Everyone played hard and gave it their all until every play in the end. We were able to keep every set close and most of our sets could have gone either way. We just weren’t able to execute and close out each set. We had great blocking all day from Nick Kim and our whole team served so well! I’m proud of how everyone played and of how hard we fought in the end.”
There is more to come this season for Cortland Mens Club Volleyball with various Tournaments approaching as the semester continues. To keep up with the team and see when they play next you can follow the volleyball team’s Instagram. @cortlandmensvolleyball