Club volleyball competes at nationals

By Nicholas Pinkerton

The men's club volleyball team is quickly earning a reputation as a consistent national contender.

Although the Broncos were eliminated in the quarterfinal round of the National Volleyball Championships in Dallas on April 12, the No. 18 Broncos failed to go down without a fight.

Santa Clara lost to the No. 4 Fresno State Bulldogs in a heartbreaker (25-20, 20-25, 12-15) after winning five of their previous six National Campus Championship Series matches.

This is the third consecutive season Santa Clara has reached the Elite Eight equivalent in the 48-team tournament.

Despite the losing effort, Club President Matt Brubaker said the team left the court playing their best volleyball of the season.

"We played at their competition and above them for awhile. Either team could have won that game," he said. "That was the game where everybody stepped up because they knew everything was at stake."

The Broncos began the tournament by going 3-0 in their first round draw, where the Broncos squared off against University of Pennsylvania, Marquette and the pool's highest ranked team, Utah Valley State.

"In a previous tournament they (Utah Valley State) had lost the first game to UCLA 25-7 and came back and won the match. We knew what we were getting ourselves into," said Brubaker.

Fortunately for the Broncos, injuries to two of Utah Valley State's starters prevented them from competing, and Santa Clara handled the Wolverines, defeating them in just two games (25-14, 25-20).

"I thought we played really well the first day," said Brubaker, whose team won all three matches without forcing a third game against an opponent. "At no time did I think we were in high danger of losing."

Santa Clara advanced to the second draw, where they faced two of their Northern California Collegiate Volleyball League opponents, Cal Poly and Stanford. They beat Stanford, then lost to Cal Poly, but qualified for the 16-team single elimination round.

In their first single elimination game, the Broncos upset a heavily favored opponent, the Long Beach State 49ers, and emerged with an impressive victory, defeating them in two games (25-12, 25-21).

"We just came out on fire with a purpose to at least make it where we made it before," said Brubaker.

The Broncos then advanced to the quarterfinals to face Fresno State, another conference foe. Out of the 16 teams in the single elimination round, five of them, including Santa Clara, came from the Northern California Collegiate Volleyball League, exhibiting the strength of the conference and the level of competition the Broncos faced in preparation for the tournament.

"Our conference is one of the toughest conferences in the nation, as shown with the single elimination round," said Brubaker.

When it came to their quarterfinal match up, the Broncos nearly matched the Bulldogs point for point. The Bulldogs took the first game, but the Broncos fought back to win the second. In the third match, the Broncos lost by just three points, eliminating them from the tournament.

It was those few points that made the difference, as the Broncos' run toward a national championship came to an end.

"Either team could have won that game," said Brubaker. "There were a couple small plays here and there that went (Fresno State's) way and not ours."

The team was not done in Dallas, however. They stuck around to watch the national championship game, where four of the players were announced to the all-tournament teams.

Law student Dan Kwon and sophomore Colin Niedermeyer were named to the All-Tournament Second Team, while law student Tyler Hinz and MBA student Brian Bollinger were named Honorable Mention.

Success breeds success for these players.

Hinz originally played NCAA volleyball for Cal Baptist University and UC Santa Cruz, and currently coaches the club volleyball team, Bay to Bay. Bollinger and Niedermeyer were named to the all-tournament team last season, and Kwon coaches for the local high school volleyball powerhouse, Archbishop Mitty.

"Their best is better than everyone else's best," said Brubaker. "Their experience in this type of situation, being in an elimination game in the national tournament, allows them to excel."

Bollinger and Kwon are ineligible for next year, and the team will also lose law student Jon Chen. Besides those players, the team will not lose anyone else due to graduation, as there are currently no seniors on the roster.

"I think keeping a similar team together is going to give us a huge advantage," said Brubaker. "Our freshmen have seen what it takes to win nationals and compete, and they know what they need to do to improve."

The season's conclusion was bittersweet for the Broncos. Despite this, Brubaker acknowledges this season as another successful one, though it falls short of the team's ultimate goal of making the National Championship game.

"Sure we're bummed out that we didn't win, but there's a sense of accomplishing part of our goal to get back to where we had been before, although the obvious goal is to win a national championship."

Contact Nicholas Pinkerton at (408) 551-1918 or npinkerton@scu.edu.