Club volleyball ends season with No. 5 ranking

By Joe Doss-Antoun

Despite competing against programs with larger recruiting bases and bigger student bodies, the Santa Clara men's club volleyball team remains one of the best Division I club teams in the nation.

In their third year since moving up to Division I competition, the Broncos have finished in the top 10 nationally, including consecutive fifth place finishes the past two seasons.

"One of the main reasons we've been so successful as a team is because we don't take volleyball too seriously," said Scott Clark, club president. "We are still very committed to the team, but we just like to keep a nice balance between volleyball and the other things in our life."

The Broncos are considered a Division II school because the total enrollment is less than 15,000. Clark said the Broncos don't have the ideal recruiting base to attract players to the team.

Despite the challenges, the team still manages to attract players from all walks of life. On the 18-man roster, you can find law school students, people from Hawaii, people from Maryland or even people who had never played the sport before coming to Santa Clara.

"I didn't even know men's volleyball existed before I came to Santa Clara," said sophomore Brendan Parker. "I knew I just wanted to play some sort of competitive sport."

"It's also an amazing way to meet a wide variety of people from different age groups," added Parker.

While the team atmosphere is friendly, the men still manage to achieve incredible success. But what makes the team's accomplishments all the more impressive is the fact that they are doing it under adverse conditions.

In the last four years, the Broncos have undergone three coaching changes.

"It's been really hard to find a coach who is truly committed and willing to stay for longer than a year," said Clark. "The job doesn't exactly pay well. It actually pays less than most other club sports."

Clark also said that competing against teams from the Midwest is a challenge for a West Coast school like Santa Clara.

"Most of the schools from the Midwest, like the University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh and the University of Illinois, are big enough to find some really talented players for their club teams. But out on the West Coast, most of the talented players go to schools like UCLA or Arizona, so it's harder to get players at Santa Clara."

Regardless, the Broncos have managed to find their fair share of talent. Leading the way this year has been freshman right side hitter Colin Niedermeyer.

In his first year of collegiate competition, Niedermeyer was named to the All-League First Team and All-National Tournament Second Team.

"Colin has a world of talent," said Clark. "He is one of the best players to come through our program."

Despite having offers to play for NCAA teams such as Pepperdine University and UC Davis, Neidermeyer opted to come to Santa Clara.

"I really wanted to come to a Catholic school on the West Coast," said Neidermeyer. "I essentially chose school over volleyball."

Neidermeyer's decision to come to Santa Clara has paid off tremendously for the men's club volleyball team. Led by Neidermeyer and senior captains Scott Clark and Jason Kennedy, the team finished third in the highly competitive Northern California Collegiate Volleyball League.

With an 11-5 record, the Broncos finished behind Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo, and UC-Davis.

"Our league has become a lot more competitive over the years," said Kennedy.

The Broncos carried momentum from the strong league performance into the national tournament in Lexington, Ky.

Entering the tournament, the Broncos were ranked No. 14 of the 48 teams competing.

With wins in the first three matches, the Broncos advanced to the Gold Bracket of the national tournament. The team eventually dropped a best-of-three match to Texas A&M, ending their hopes of claiming a first-ever championship. They bounced back the next day, however, with a win over league-rival UC Davis.

"UC Davis is one of our biggest rivals," said Kennedy. "It's always fun to play them because it's like some of us have been playing against their same players for the past four years."

With their 5-2 record at nationals, the Broncos finished the season ranked fifth in the nation for the second straight year.

"I don't know if we underestimated ourselves or overestimated other teams, but we really didn't expect to do so well," said Clark. "It's just been an amazing final year for our seniors."

Contact Joe Doss-Antoun at (408) 551-1918 or Jdossantoun@scu.edu.