With one conference win under its belt and a 13-4 overall record, the No. 8-ranked NYU men’s volleyball team aims to charge strong into the remainder of the postseason. The Violets fell just short last year in the national tournament after winning the UVC Championship for the second time in a row — and now, the players are hungry for a comeback. But before they can think about NCAAs, there’s a tough conference slate ahead.
“As of right now, we’re trending the right way,” head coach Jose Pina told WSN. “We’ve been competing really well.”
The Violets kicked off this season with fervor, taking home a win against California Lutheran University, which knocked NYU out of the NCAA Tournament last year. They have also faced rivals like the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and No. 1-ranked Springfield College with a new roster, aiming to improve consistency and mentality. With five of last season’s starters now graduated, the team is younger and less experienced, composed of many first-year starters.
“I see the instances where their youth or lack of experience comes into play,” Pina said. “They haven’t lived through that pressure. The only thing you cannot teach a team is how to get older.”
According to standout first-year BoJameson Ebeling, who recorded a season-high 22 kills against Arcadia University in January, inexperience is a motivator.
“Among the freshmen, there’s definitely an eagerness throughout the team with this chip on our shoulder — to prove we can perform just as well, if not better,” Ebeling said. “We need to be scrapping and fighting as hard as we can.”
NYU has dealt with a few obstacles, including senior Jake Upham’s early-season injury that sidelined him for the year. The team also saw a frustrating defeat by Springfield last month due to a red card — the Violets fought hard through the match, forcing the top team in Division III to compete in five sets.
“That was definitely a hard setback,” Emerson Evans, junior captain and a key offensive player, said. “It was a game we thought we deserved to win, and showing up to practice the next day thinking you’d be the number one team in the nation — but on the score sheet, it reflected a loss — was hard.”
Aiming to carry the momentum of their wins while also allowing the losses — one of which was a tight UVC contest against MIT on Saturday — to fuel their fire, the Violets will have five more conference matches to secure a spot at the UVC Championship next month.
NYU’s performance this season backs up that confidence, as the team leads the UVC in average points per set, hitting percentage and kills per set.
“I think we have the team to do it,” Evans said. “I want to get Coach P a national championship. … Volleyball means everything to him. The team means everything to him.”
The Violets are deep in mental and physical preparation, analysing opponents’ matches, lifting at the gym and focusing on targeted training. The conference games ahead include tough rivals like Vassar College, who beat Springfield in five sets after NYU’s recent loss to the same opponent. Though the Violets have since fallen from last year’s No. 1 ranking, they still have their eyes on the national title, hoping to punch a ticket to the NCAA D-III Championships by winning its third straight UVC title.
For its next UVC match, NYU will face Nazareth University on March 15 in the Paulson Center. The UVC Championship tournament will begin on April 10, hosted by the top-seeded teams.
“I think we are the best team in the country, and that’s the mentality I want to have,” Evans said. “We’re young, there’s a lot of inexperience, but there’s also a lot of room for growth.”
Contact Denise Bucu and Sayako Ikeda at [email protected].