The weekend following the team's tournament at Temple, the Stevens club team's next tournament was right in our home court. 10 teams attended the tournament in the Canavan Arena, with 2 pools of entrants participating in a round robin. The club team played 8 sets against varsity teams, which served as both a challenge and an opportunity for the club. There were two varsity/club teams from Stevens Institute, Kean University, and Saint Joseph's University, as well as a varsity team from Rutgers Newark and New Jersey City University. Steven's Alumni also was at the tournament, but the club team did not play them. Because of its home location, the club team had the benefit of full attendance across the board, as well as an audience which kept energy high and players feeling refreshed.
Our first match was against Saint Joseph's University, first the B team, and then the A team. From the start, the team set a fast tempo with Justin Cheng's sets and Austin Hong's hits. Passes from Tyler Brunquell and Jake Burger were strong and effective, which opened the door to strong sets by Kris Knight. Our serves were very well placed, in particular Austin's jump float and Kris' topspin. Overall our team had synergy and momentum, with the only weak part of the game being the blocking. Both of Saint Joseph's University varsity teams proved to have strong hitters, although their A team was able to overpower our digs. Despite middle blocker Cary Qi having strong hits throughout the set, Stevens finished the first two sets evenly; a 25-13 win over the B team, and a 18-25 loss to their A team. One thing we definitely noticed was that we needed stronger blocks in order to make some traction in this tournament.
The next match for the team was against Rutgers Newark and New Jersey City University. Rutgers had a very powerful team, showcasing athleticism and strength throughout the entire first match. Freshman Justin Cheng had played with Rutgers' setter previously and despite the warning, their sets were as effective and palpable as ever. However, Stevens did not break. Strong digs and graceful passes to Knight and Cheng led to hard swings by Hong and Qi outside and through the middle. Jake Burger played right side hitter and had a couple of kills as well. But Rutgers proved too big of a challenge for the team, and Stevens lost 21-25. Rutgers later went on to win the entire tournament, showing the merit of our performance.
The next game of the second match against New Jersey City University was a very even match for the club team, with NJCU paralleling both our strengths and weaknesses in almost every sense. They had good receives and sets but lacked weak blocks. Their hits were strong yet predictable. For this game, Knight and Cheng switch positions, and Knight played in the front row, which proved to be a viable strategy because of Kris' sensible and soft blocks. Also, despite being a freshman, Cheng picked up some very crucial and hard receives in the back row. Through a long and tough set, all of the players had big moments and truly shined. Freshman Miles Bird played right side hitter and racked up a couple kills and good receives. All the other hitters connected with both of the setters for big swings on all parts of the net. Jake Burger and Tyler Brunquell had very good back row attacks. In particular, Burger made full use of his immaculate vertical jumping abilities to drive back attacks hard and closer to the net. Knight racked up a string of service aces. In the end however, it was simple mistakes that folded the team in on itself. A lack of discipline and communication became more and more clear as the set progressed, which NJCU capitalized off. Stevens ultimately lost the set 24 – 26.
The next match immediately after was against Kean University's two teams. The first game against their B team, Stevens built off its strengths from the previous sets, and attempted to resolve the issues they had with their blocks. The team kept the positions they used in the last match, which once more worked out in the Ducks favor. Cheng had a number of really good plays, and Knight kept his blocks up the entire match. Bird had a few more kills, and some good dives. Tyler Brunquell kept his momentum from the previous matches and then some. He had some very good wipes off the opponent's blocks, and some beautiful cross swings. Stevens beat the Kean B team 25-22. Kean's A team, compared to all the teams Stevens has faced earlier, had an incredibly powerful middle blocker and prolific setter, which proved to be quite the challenge for Stevens, mainly because they had not seen play like this before in their season. Freshmen Cheng and Bird had trouble keeping up with their style of play, putting more pressure on the receives of Burger, Hong and Brunquell. In addition, our blocks were too slow and too short to be effective against their middle attacks. However, we caught a few breaks with their relatively poor serves, and our own serving abilities. In addition, our setting was unpredictable enough to get around their block a few times, and score points. Their team was not ready for us to reverse the court in our sets as often as we did. The ducks began to rally towards the end of the set, although it was too late to change the outcome of the game. Stevens lost to Kean 22-25.
Throughout the tournament, the club team performed excellently, and gained a lot of invaluable experience from varsity caliber competition. The high-level of play challenged and inspired the team. With prospects of a coach in the near future, the Stevens Club team hope to gain more wisdom and knowledge for the next season. With some days off coming up, the team will need to keep their wits about them and use the most of what practices and reps they have in order to swing their momentum and keep their head up going into the upcoming Spring 2020 Season.
2019-2020 Stevens Mens Club Volleyball Travel Roster: Stevens Tournament
Austin Hong
Cary Qi
Tyler Brunquell
Jake Burger
Daniel Jun
Kris Knight
Justin Cheng
Miles Bird
Roland Tumbokon
Nathan Molinari
