While Kansas City, Mo., may not be the optimum spot to spend a three-day weekend, 12 Boston University students were thrilled to be in the Midwest over the Patriots’ Day break.
The 12 women were the members of the BU women’s club volleyball team participating in the national tournament in America’s heartland.
This was the second consecutive weekend the Terriers were playing for a tournament championship, as last weekend they made it to the semifinals of the New England Women’s Volleyball Club League (NEWVCL) Tournament, bowing out to Pennsylvania State University.
Their successful regular season play and NEWVCL performance gave the Terriers a ranking in the national tournament of 21st out of 48 teams.
On Thursday, the quest for the championship began as the team took the courts at 8 a.m. to face Virginia Tech University. Unfortunately, the Terriers did not have the strength to defeat them and lost 25-17, 20-25, 15-13.
The University of Colorado was the next foe and also proved to be tough opponents as the Terriers dropped the match 27-25, 25-22. The University of Kentucky also gave the Terriers trouble, and BU found itself on the losing end of its third and final match of the day 25-16, 25-15.
But Friday brought a new day of competition with a whole new set of opponents, and the Terriers came out with determination. Team President and senior Fatoko Sasaki believed the team just needed to “get over the jitters.”
“There were 26 courts in the Bartell Convention Center, which made the whole thing a little overwhelming,” Sasaki said.
The University of California at Davis was the first to fall at the hands of the Terriers. Nerves aside, BU showed its true ability and won the match 25-19, 23-25, 15-11.
The second opponent of the day was the University of Maryland, and it, too, was unable to stop the surging Terriers. The final score was 26-24, 16-25, 15-9 and placed the Terriers in the silver bracket.
The last day of tournament play broke the teams down into three brackets. The gold bracket contained the top teams, followed by the silver and bronze brackets. The Terriers were happy with their placement in the final round, since in the past two years BU has appeared in the tournament, it has only made it to the bronze bracket.
But, since the last day was single elimination, the Terriers’ day ended early as they lost in their first match to the University of Michigan 25-14, 25-19.
The Terriers, however, did not leave the tournament totally unsatisfied.
“It was definitely a learning experience,” Sasaki said. “It was really intense, and we all learned to work under pressure.”
And although Sasaki will graduate in May, she seemed pleased to help the young team gain experience for future years and a possible future championship trophy.
“As the team gets older, they will definitely get better,” Sasaki said.
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