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Back-to-back championships in Arizona's sight

UA volleyball beings national tournament play

Only one team has yet to drop a club match in the past two years. Only one team sports a 1999 National Championship shirt. Only one team reigns in the No. 1 club slot with a Division I competitive edge - the Arizona men's club volleyball team.

The Wildcats are marked as the team to beat when it begins the National Intramural-Recreational Sports Association (NIRSA) championship tournament today in Reno, Nev.

"I think it is a definite advantage that we are defending national champions, entering the tournament because of the confidence we can draw from the fact that we won the tournament last season," graduate setter Steve Walker said. "Although, being defending champions certainly places a huge target on our chests for other teams to aim for."

The only thing plaguing this team is perhaps the lack of competition up until the championship tournament.

"The greatest frustration this season would definitely be our schedule. All Division I teams have basically shut us out of their schedule for the fear of losing to a club team," Walker said.

Today is the day that really matters for Arizona as the NIRSA tournament begins at 8 in the morning.

In the first match, the Wildcats will meet Duke, who they beat in a two-game match in February, followed with a match at 10 a.m. against Yale.

UA will close their day at noon against the University of Wisconsin at Osh-Kosh, who they beat in late January at the Michigan tournament in two games, as well.

"We are fine with this pool," UA assistant coach Skip Greenburgh said. "We're very comfortable and happy where we are at. It'll just be that 8 a.m. start up time that's a little tough."

The NIRSA tournament includes 60 Division I club teams. For the first day of competition, teams are delegated into 15 pools of four teams.

The winner of each pool will move to a championship bracket and the fourth place team will be moved to a segregated consolation bracket.

The second and third teams will play for the opportunity to get back into championship bracket. Lastly, the teams will be re-pooled into "power pools" and depending on their finish there, they may advance to the championship bracket, explained UA head coach Steve Carlat.

"Our only weakness is underestimating the opponent," said junior outside hitter Andy Jaeckle. "The fact that other teams are gunning for us just makes the games more competitive in an otherwise dull tournament."

"Truthfully, we have more competitive practices than tournaments, but hopefully this tournament will be a little different."

Still the Wildcats would like to be back-to-back NIRSA national champions.

"We need to focus our energy for one common goal," junior middle hitter Vince Rooney said. "We need to give 100 percent no matter who we are playing if we want this tournament."

A tournament victory will mark a three-peat for one Wildcat. Middle hitter graduate student Mike Stowell was a member of last year's championship team, and also won the NIRSA title his senior year at Graceland College in Iowa.

"Our greatest strength is our depth," Stowell said. "We know if someone gets hurt we will be able to continue playing at a high level."

This was evident in the Conference tournament two weeks ago, when sophomore Nick Cheever filled in at middle blocker for Nick Thompson who was ill, without any change in the top-notch playing. Thompson is back for this week's play.

Stowell identified the lone weakness for the Wildcats as overconfidence.

"Our greatest weakness is that we have not been challenged over the past month," he said. "The real test will be able to see if we can rise to the occasion if and when a team really challenges us."