The Lafayette men’s club volleyball team attended its first tournament this past weekend at Kutztown University, at which the A team made it to the first round of the playoffs before losing to Stony Brook University in the first round.
While the A team had two wins and four losses, the B team grabbed a win amid five losses.
“My personal favorite moment was our first set, and I ended with a service ace, which was pretty cool,” junior Liam Thompson said. “During one of the sets in the playoffs, the other team was on match point, and [junior Jake Sevcik] just went for a jump serve regardless of the fact that we were on match point.”
Thompson explained that the recent success of the club has been a long time coming. While there was a movement for the club to be recognized for a while, the team only officially got started last spring. The team was mostly just practicing together, although they had a few scrimmages with other teams.
Thompson said that the women’s club team was an integral part of the men’s team’s development on campus.
“We’re like twin flames. We’re very supportive of each other,” Thompson said. “Occasionally we have practice on the same night. We’ll be scrimmaging and the other team starts shouting and encouraging things.”
The team practices in Kirby Gym on Mondays and Thursdays from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. They have about 20 consistent players this year compared to last year’s 15, with a few new freshmen being added this year. Since the team has grown, they were able to form an A and B team because they only need nine players to get a full game going.
The A team is a bit more competitive, with seven of the nine players having played volleyball before in some capacity. As for the rest of the team, most of their experience came from high school gym class or playing beach volleyball with friends.
The club’s executive board includes junior Jake Sevcik and sophomore Blake Hyatt as president and vice president, respectively. Senior Andrew Gershon and junior Ben Kitson are the team’s treasurer and secretary, respectively. Sophomore social media chair Preston Bean is in charge of the club’s beloved Instagram.
“I think the Instagram directly reflects the kind of people we have on the team. It speaks very truthfully to how we all interact,” Thompson said. “We’re serious about what we’re doing, but having a good time while we’re doing it.”
Thompson said that this team is not one to give up when they start losing. Instead of being discouraged by a loss, they use it as motivation.
“The vibe of the team is great. It’s very positive and encouraging,” Thompson said. “The freshmen are really cool and hard-working. Everybody is very like-minded. We know what we’re trying to accomplish and we want to develop as a team. I think the cool thing about this tournament for us was seeing what the skill ceiling was like.”
The club plans to continue scrimmaging. “We’re trying to aim for [a scrimmage] almost every weekend, in a perfect world,” Thompson said.
They also plan to attend another tournament in November. There has even been talk about the team joining a league in the spring.
Thompson said that the team may want to help host events for the campus like glow-in-the-dark volleyball. In the near future, the team will be working on developing fundamental skills like reliable passing and receiving.
“We’re always welcoming new members. Just show up. Reach out to our officers, check out OurCampus, or follow us @laf_mvb,” he said. “I think we’re developing a volleyball culture on campus.”
