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Men's volleyball wins Desert Thunder

The Arizona men's club volleyball team had high expectations going into this weekend's tournament.

After coming out on top, the players proved their expectations were worthy, but admit there is more to come with their playing.

"We expected to do good," graduate student opposite Brian Bowers said. "We wanted to win, and expected to, and we did. But we could have done better."

However, for the fifth annual Desert Thunder tournament in Tucson, the top-ranked Wildcats had just what was needed to win the championship.

"We played really well today," graduate student outside hitter Mike Stowell said after the championship match yesterday. "We were rested up and our play was very solid, very consistent. We played well as a team, the cohesion we were lacking in our last tournament was there today."

The Wildcat men came together in front of a crowd of about 50 fans to shut out Grossmont Community College in the championship match, 25-21, 25-20.

To advance to the championship round, Arizona recorded victories against Goldenwest, 25-18, 25-15, and Biola, 25-14, 25-18. Grossmont and Goldenwest colleges were alternating champions in previous matches in California.

"We were not as challenged yesterday," Stowell said of Saturday's matches. "Today, the competition was much better, and our team thrives on better teams. We need to work on keeping our level from today for every team because today, we played consistent."

In Saturday's matches, the Wildcats were victorious against Pima Community College, 25-7, 25-19, Duke, 25-14, 25-17, and Long Beach City College, 25-18, 19-25, 15-5.

"We played how we know how to play," sophomore setter Jeff Grobe said.

But the team will not rest before their next matches March 9 at Arizona State.

"As far as how the team did, we were consistent," senior middle hitter Vince Rooney said. "But yet, we could play better. But we have two months to keep pushing for (the NIRSA tournament). We were the most consistent today than we have been in a long time.

"This is our stepping stone on the way to the tournament (Apr. 5-8)."

UA head coach Steve Carlat echoed the players' thoughts on playing to their caliber, not the competitions'.

However, his main disappointment for this weekend fell to community support, or rather, lack thereof.

"It was nice to be home," he said. "But our fan turn-out mainly consists of players' friends and relatives, not so much members of the community."

Wildcat grad student setter Steve Walker was named the tournament MVP, while teammates Stowell and Rooney were named to the All-Tournament team.

Texas A&M finished fourth in the tournament, followed by Long Beach.