Perfect record leads to top-five national intramural ranking for club team

Returning to Bloomington after a perfect weekend, the men's volleyball team was on top of it all. The defending champions of the Michigan Classic dominated January 26 and 27; ending the weekend with a 12-0 record. The team went on to receive the No. 3 national ranking from the National Intramural Recreational Sports Association this week.\n"We realized as a team that the ranking only means that we have to work harder," club president, junior Jeremy Levy said. "Our team was surprised that we were ranked so high. We knew that we would be in the top seven, but we are happy that we are finally being recognized and respected from everyone around the country. We are working for the ultimate goal of winning the national championship, and we know that in order to do that we have to buckle down and really work hard to obtain that goal. We want to keep our undefeated record." \nThe Hoosiers began the weekend at the University of Michigan facing off against Niagara County Community College, the US Naval Academy, Ohio Northern University and Duke in pool play. After successfully winning each game of all four matches, the men again faced the US Naval Academy. The Hoosiers defeated the Academy with seven points or more and went on to compete against Ohio Northern University and Ball State in the quarter and semifinals, respectively. \nThe last match of the weekend was the final stepping stone for the Hoosiers 12-match winning streak as they took on their rival, Michigan State. A close first game gave the men some trouble, but they pulled out the win 27-25 and returned to win the next match 25-21.\nEnding the weekend with a tournament win was not the Hoosiers only victory; junior Chris Reilly was named tournament MVP and junior J.T. Gripe was named to the all tournament team. \n"It was great to make the team, but I was happier to win the whole tournament. The only thing that the judges for the all-tournament team look at is offense, and everyone on the team contributed in some way to help us win," Gripe said.\n"Winning gave us a lot of respect but made us a target to all the other teams. We were the unknown team and many teams underestimated us, but now we are wearing a bullseye when we step into the court. Now we have to take another step, seeing as how we are everyones' target and the one to beat when we come into a match," he said. \nThe next two weeks leading up to the second portion of the Big Ten Qualifier Feb. 16 will test the Hoosiers' strength and abilities. The team has begun practice and will be working on a new defense that will hopefully take them to the next level Levy said. \nThe next matches for the Hoosiers will pair them against teams such as Michigan State and Illinois. \n"We played Michigan State during the tournament, which was the second time that we played them this season." Reilly said "We got a second look at them when we played them, and that will help us for the qualifier. To prepare, we are going to be looking at game tapes from last weekend and see if we can pick a part of things and improve and some things"