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Women’s club volleyball ends season with nationals |
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Wednesday, 16 April 2008 |
 | Jones
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by ASHLEY DAVIS
Sports Reporter
Just over 1,000 miles from Boone in Dallas, the women’s club volleyball team met with teams from across the country to compete in the National Campus Championship Series.
The championship was held late last week over a three-day span.
Appalachian State University’s team met seven other teams to finish with a 3-4 record.
“In all I would say the tournament was a success,” senior and club president Darby Jones said. “We
ended up 3-4 overall which is the best we’ve done since we started playing in nationals. We had hoped
to do better, but we’re still extremely happy with where we ended up. I did expect for us to finish in the
gold bracket, but losing on Friday dropped us to silver.”
The first day of the competition, the women’s team defeated both San Diego State University and the
University of Albany in two matches.
After a strong beginning, they lost to the University of Tennessee, putting them in second place in their
division pool.
A victory over the University of Central Florida Friday morning in a challenge game sent the team into
the championship bracket, which is the furthest the Appalachian State team has ever gone.
“The first day we played, our team played wonderful together. Passes were on, we missed very few
serves, and everyone was playing aggressively. We definitely performed on a much higher level than
we had been playing previously,” Jones said. “The second day, after our challenge game, our
momentum just fell… Everyone got pretty frustrated and we just couldn’t come back for wins in the
third games.”
In the championship bracket Appalachian was met by Bowling Green State University and the
University of Oregon, who defeated the Mountaineers three matches each.
The final day of the championship tournament was Saturday, which began single-game elimination, and
placed the Mountaineers on the court against Georgia Southern University.
“Our game against Georgia Southern was a strange one,” Jones said. “The first game we didn’t come
out very strong, losing by seven points. The second game of the match we played great and ended up
on top by nine points. The third game we played like a completely different team and ended up losing
by three to end the tournament.”
Due to the large number of members on the women’s club team, only the gold team traveled to
compete, while the other members of the women’s volleyball team traveled to compete at the
University of North Carolina at Greensboro.
Funding didn’t allow all of the team to be together to finish their
season, yet Jones said they were all proud of each other, even if they
weren’t competing together at the end.
“Our season went very well,” sophomore Allison L. Dawson said. “We had a lot of injuries and illnesses,
but we were able to overcome the adversity through hard work. I am so proud of everyone and I am
extremely glad that I was able to play in my first collegiate national tournament with a really great
team.”
“Everyone gets a little nervous at nationals. It’s overwhelming walking into the center, seeing 50 courts
spread out all over everywhere,” Jones said. “Getting past those nerves and playing through the
excitement can be difficult.”
As with any sport, however, the end of the season can be bittersweet with goodbyes to seniors, which
includes five players on the women’s team, as well as the satisfaction of a second-place conference
finish - the furthest the team has ever gone in nationals.
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