The Carthage men's volleyball team has reached the summit. All that remains is to snag the top prize.
That — understatement alert! — will be easier said than done.
The Red Men ousted UC-Santa Cruz in four sets on Saturday, April 28, and will meet Springfield (Mass.) College, in the championship match of the first NCAA Division III Men's Volleyball Championship today at 4 p.m EDT. It will be the first time a Carthage team will play an event with a national championship going to the winner.
All coach L.J. Marx's team will have to do is survive a snake pit, hornet's nest and deal with what UC-Santa Cruz coach Todd Hollenbeck says are rabid fans. That is because, if you are just now jumping on the bandwagon, the title match is being played in Blake Arena, the home of the top-ranked Pride.
This could turn into an “Indiana Jones” movie. Digs, setups and kills all over the place; the place being Blake Arena. But it is not likely Harrison Ford will be walking through that door, prop of choice at the ready.
“Springfield fans are nasty,” said Hollenbeck, whose team experienced the wrath of the locals on Feb. 10 while coming out on the short end of a 3-1 match. “Really, I've heard some of the worst things ever from their fans.”
It would be hard to blame Pride supporters — they showed up in big numbers to see Springfield rout of Hunter but most left before the match between Carthage, ranked third in the American Volleyball Coaches Association poll, and second-ranked UC-Santa Cruz— for being difficult to deal with. Their program is a legitimate powerhouse.
Springfield won 6 of the 15 Molten Championships, the most recent coming in 2010. They had one second-place finish (last year), and two third-place showings.
Springfield is Rolling
The Pride's route to this year's championship match has been via routs. Top-ranked Springfield (32-5) swept both 13th-ranked Baruch (24-17) and 12th-ranked Hunter (26-9). Springfield has won 20 matches in a row and 30 of 31.
Springfield 17-0 at home this year and has a 19-match Blake Arena winning streak since a 3-0 loss to St. Francis (Pa.) on April 2, 2011. This year's outfit is 24-5 in three-set matches (four of the defeats came to Division I schools, the other to Juniata), 3-0 in matches that go four sets and 5-0 in matches that go to a fifth set.
Springfield is 2-0 against Carthage, winning in the Nazareth College Invitational in 2008 and in semifinals of 2010 Molten Championship. Both matches were 3-0 sweeps.
All those numbers are fine, good and impressive — great, too, actually — but will have no bearing on what happens today. And, of course, a spectator — student or otherwise — will not score a single point.
Marx says bring it on.
“I'll be honest, good,” Marx said after his team improved to 29-5. “If you've watched us play at all over the season, anybody who's followed us knows we're an emotional team. I'd rather play in a hostile environment than an empty gym. It gives us something to get motivated around.”
I'll second that, Randy Hansen said.
“Oh, it's going to be hostile,” said Hansen, who went without a kill in the first set, then had a team-high 17 in the next three. “We're playing in their gym for a national title.
“But you've still got to play volleyball.”
Springfield has one individual among the top five in Division III statistics: Junior middle blocker Greg Falcone, a first team AVCA All-American is fourth with 1.36 blocks per set. Freshman outside hitter Angel Perez is 12th among Division III schools in hitting percentage at .341. The team is first in hitting percentage at .374 (Carthage is next at .324).
Marx Looking in a Mirror
Marx expects a textbook match.
“Volleyball 101,” Marx said. “Aggressive serving and great passing. I think both teams have similar weapons. We run a very similar system and style of offense, a similar system and style of defense, as far as responsibilities. We have a couple matchups I think are favorable, and I'm sure (Springfield coach Charlie) Sullivan has a couple he thinks are very favorable.
“It's two big teams that like to hit balls hard, from the service and at the net. And both teams put up great blocks. It's going to be one of the more enjoyable matches, because it's going to be won and lost at the net with guys hitting balls hard.”
The Carthage seniors have paved the way for sophomore starters Pat Barry, Connor Wexter and Jim Schultz, each of whom will have large roles today. Barry and Wexter are AVCA first-team All-Americans. Wexter had 47 assists against the Banana Slugs, while Schultz contributed a team-high 12 digs and eight assists, and Barry added 12 kills and five digs.
“Last year definitely helps (being acclimated to the national tournament,” Schultz said. “This year, we have a ton of senior leadership. We had good seniors last year, but now we have five. We actually have a real class. It's really good motivation. It's good to play for them.”
Wexter: “We had two seniors (Tom O'Connell and Tim Walker) last year, and they were both extraordinary leaders. But this year having five, and having been at the final four last year, we all kind of know what to expect coming into it. We're playing for them. We don't want them going away in tears. We want them to go away happy.”
While the championship game environment is likely to be intense, do not expect any shenanigans between the players. There is not a rivalry between Carthage and Springfield like the one that has developed between the Red Men and UC-Santa Cruz. There is not a hint of animosity between
After the Banana Slugs — what a great nickname and logo — received their awards for reaching the national semifinals, the players and coaches from both schools mingled on the court for a brief time. There is a genuine good fellowship with a Slugs bunch that is a bit different from the neck up — think an assortment of mustaches, mohawks, and pony tails — but is all fight from head to toe.
“In my opinion, the volleyball community is small, compared to football and basketball,” said UC-Santa Cruz senior outside hitter Jake Diedrich, who had 16 kills against the Red Men. “When you play men's volleyball, you know a lot of people. A lot of them tend to be nice guys. Randy and Ty (Tyler Frings) are probably two of the nicest guys I've met. There's no reason to dislike them. We have to play against them. You can respect them, and still want to beat them. There's no reason to dislike anyone.”
How to Beat the Pride
Hollenbeck's quote about the Springfield fans was a quote within a quote. He was asked what Carthage needed to do to beat Springfield. Here's the bread that covered the meat:
“Neutralize their home energy,” Hollenbeck said. “Neutralize that by creating energy on your own side, and just playing your game. They (the Red Men) will win. Definitely. Absolutely.”
Marx endorses Hollenbeck's outlook.
“I hope so,” Marx said when told about Hollenbeck's prediction. “It's going to be a brutal match. I think the only slight advantage that we could possible have is the argument that Springfield has had an easier path to the final (Springfield beat the Nos. 8 and 5 seeds, while Carthage took care of Nos. 6 and 2). Which they should. They're the No. 1 seed. That's the benefit of having the No. 1 seed.
“Us being a three seed made it a little bit more difficult, but we've been through two pretty good battles. I would say, especially after Friday night, being down 14-11 in game five and coming back and winning, starting to lose it a little bit today (in the third set) and responding very, very quickly. I can't possibly come up with a scenario that could come up that I don't think we're prepared for, from a deficit standpoint.”
Marx says his team has plenty in the reservoirs for adrenaline, You can add emotion and mental toughness.
“We've talked about it from early on in the school year,” Marx said. “We've set it up to be, at least in our definition, the best conditioned, the best prepared team on the court. The amount of hours these guys have put in in the weight room and on the court, they've getting themselves ready for long runs like this. We've put ourselves in two tournaments where we had three tough matches over the course of the tournament; a tough match Friday, a tough match Saturday and a tough match Sunday, along with other events where we've had four- or five-match weekends, with three of them being against top-five teams nationally essentially.
“By no accident did that happen. It was a plan to see where we stand, and to get the guys more of an understanding of what they're in for if they want to win a national championship. You've got to battle through three tough matches in three straight days. We've done it, we've come out of it both times 3-0. We'll see if we can do it a third time.”
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