On Saturday, March 4th, the Cortland Mens Club Volleyball team traveled to Geneseo for a tournament. In this tournament they competed against Canisius College, Brockport College, Oswego College, Ithaca College, Rochester Institute of Technology, University of Buffalo, Oneonta College, Niagra University, Geneseo Alumni, and Geneseo College A and B teams. Each game started at four points and was played until twenty-five.
In the tournament’s first round, Cortland was scheduled to face off against the Geneseo Alumni team. For the first set of the day, Cortland played strong, allowing them to bring in their first win, which began to build their momentum. They carried this momentum into the second set they played against Geneseo beating them in both games. Cortland beat the Geneseo Alumni Team 25-13 in the first game and then 25-19 in the second.
For their second game of the day, Cortland was placed against Brockport. For both of these games, Cortland lost the heat that they had in the first game, losing each set. For the first set, they lost 18-25, then battled in a close fight, ultimatley losing 25-19 in the second.
Cortlands’ last round of regular play was against the University of Buffalo. In these two games, Cortland picked up their game from the last match pulling two victories. They won both of their games 25-8 and 25-13. Justin Korczac had a sixteen-point serving run and Ben Gardener had seven blocks and five kills.
Cortland made the gold playoffs and each game was best of three and first and second sets started at four and were played until twenty-five. Then if there was a third set it would start at zero and play until fifteen.
The first round of tournament play was against Rochester Institute of Technology and Cortland won it in two rounds. They started playoffs with their two wins of 25-24 and then 25-20. This victory allowed them to be pushed into the Semifinals.
Cortland was up against Canisius in the Semifinals and this close game went into three sets. Cortland started off with a strong win of 25-17. They then lost their momentum in the second and third sets of the match losing 23-25, then 12-15.
Overall Cortland played well at the tournament, this play was good enough for third place at the end of the day out of the twelve teams that showed up to play.
One of the players, Carter Galle said “The guys played their hearts out and I can’t ask for anything more. I’m so extremely proud to call myself a part of this team. We had exceeded every single expectation I had coming into the tournament and I’m extremely excited for what’s to come for our team.”
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