Lauren RabainoThe Cal Poly men’s volleyball club team is quickly becoming the team to watch out for in its league.
Broken up into two teams, the A team plays in Division I and the B team is part of Division II in the Northern California Collegiate Volleyball League.
Cal Poly’s A squad is currently ranked ninth in the nation and is 5-0 in league play.
“We have a lot of fun together,” said Greg Lawrance, club president, setter and finance senior. “It’s really informal, but we also take it really seriously – we are really competitive. We’ve been really good every year as far as rankings go . so we do take it seriously.”
About 30 men make up the entire team. Many have been playing together for about three years on the A team, said Adam Licht, club treasurer, defensive specialist and architecture junior.
The B team is made up mostly of younger men, and most of them usually get pulled up to the A team as others graduate, Licht said.
Both the A and B teams will participate in the Far Westerns Tournament on Saturday, hosted by UC Davis.
If Cal Poly wins the tournament, its National Volleyball Championships entry fee will be paid for.
This year’s nationals are held from April 10 through 12 in Dallas.
A year ago, the A team came in second place.
“We are, mentally, a pretty tough team,” Licht said. “We’ve been playing together for a long time. I’d say we need to work on our middle attack a little bit, but other than that we are pretty good.”
Among others, Cal Poly plays against Fresno State (5-1), UC Davis (3-1), Santa Clara (5-3) and San Jose State (2-2) in league.
“(UC) Davis was supposed to be a good team that we played over the weekend and we just steamrolled them,” Licht said. “We won by like eight points, at least, every game. It was kind of a shocker. It only took us 45 minutes to play all of those games.”
Despite the Mustangs’ undefeated record, Lawrance said, “a lot of people think that because we are a club we don’t get to play a lot of good teams, but it’s not like that – the competition is really high.”
Cal Poly’s next home match will be March 9 against Chico State in Mott Gym.
Tryouts occur at the beginning of fall quarter and the regular season runs through winter quarter.
The club is self-supported and each player pays about $400 in the first set of dues for uniforms and fees for league play, tournaments and nationals. The team pays separately for travel expenses, Lawrance said.
Both teams practice Monday and Tuesday from 8 p.m. until 10 p.m. in Mott Gym. The A team coaches itself, while the B team is coached by a former team member.
Licht encourages men interested in joining the team to show up at practice.
“People know if they can hang or not,” he said. “I’d say we are looking for players with experience. It’s a pretty high level.”