The NYU men’s volleyball team concluded its regular season with a bang in a reverse sweep over Vassar College on April 1. Now, the Violets are seeded at No. 3 in the UVC Championship and will face No. 6 St. John Fisher University on Friday to kick off the conference championship.
At this point last season, the Violets were 24-0 and ranked No. 1. The team is now 18-5 overall and has a 5-2 record in conference matchups, with its only losses falling to top two seeds Massachusetts Institute of Technology and State University of New York, New Paltz. However, it’s not the record that sets this team apart from the previous season, but rather the 10 first-years who make up almost half of the roster.
“When I was a sophomore, when we made it to the Final Four, I saw a lot of similarities between our team right now and the team back then,” senior outside hitter Jerry Feng said. “The freshmen that are coming in this year — I think they have a really bright future.”
Earlier in the season, the coaching staff was tasked with figuring out how to fill the roles once held by last season’s graduating seniors. Currently, the Violets’ starting lineup consists of three first-years: Charlie Clifford as an outside hitter, and Cade Miller and Veer Agarwal as middle blockers.
“It took a little bit at the beginning of the season to build chemistry with a lot of the older guys since they’ve been playing together,” Agarwal said. “But it’s really fun now — playing with all the older guys, since they have so much more experience and learning.”
Even though the team has been consistent in making the UVCs and the subsequent NCAA Division III Championship in recent seasons, head coach José Piña is aware that winning the title and getting a bid into the NCAA tournament is no easy feat.
“We are a bloodbath, in a sense,” Piña said. “Everybody you play in the UVC has the chance to upset you, beat you, whether you are No. 1 or No. 6. It’s just that tough a conference.”
Qualifying for the NCAA tournament relies on the team’s rank in the NCAA Power Index and the results of the conference championships. If the team wins the UVC, it automatically qualifies for the NCAA tournament. If the Violets get knocked out before then, the team can only receive a bid into the tournament if its season record and schedule is strong enough.
While conference opponents remain the same, coaches have a say in who they play out of conference. The staff faces this task with the NPI in mind: The end goal is to accumulate enough points for a NCAA bid.
“The ultimate goal is NCAA championships, but because of our conference, the best way to do that is to finish towards the top of the UVC,” Piña said. “Usually that puts you in a good position to potentially either win it or have an at-large.”
Following a rough 3-1 conference loss against SUNY New Paltz at the end of March, junior right side hitter and captain Emerson Evans brought the team together to reflect on the season. He showed the team a clip from last season, which Feng said demonstrated how players could better connect with one another on the court.
“We didn’t have our heart in the game, we weren’t playing like we had nothing to lose,” Feng said. “Even after you lose a point, you bring it in, you stay there for a few seconds, you say: ‘Okay, next point.’ Our team wasn’t really doing that.”
The Violets are now focusing on coming together during matches, even if the game isn’t going their way. By sharing that passion on the court, the team can maintain a high level of energy regardless of what the score looks like — and potentially bounce back from a deficit, like the one they faced from Vassar.
All that remains is for the team to perform its best, in hopes of a conference three-peat and a shot at a first national title.
“We know that on any given day that we can beat any team — but at the same time, it’s not a given,” Miller said. “Every single team wants it, and no team is coming here to lose. So we really have to step up and play our game to succeed.”
Contact Sherry Chen at [email protected].