The NYU men’s volleyball team’s rebuild season was cut short on April 17, when the Violets were swept 3-0 by the State University of New York, New Paltz in its first NCAA Division III Tournament game.

The team entered the tournament shorthanded. Starting setter and junior Devyn Nguyen sat out of the match due to an arm injury, and junior captain Emerson Evans played out of his usual position as a right side hitter, stepping up as middle blocker to fill the gap. The combination of injuries and players starting and playing in positions they weren’t used to led to an early exit from the postseason.

“We don’t really have many seniors, most of the team is freshmen,” first-year BoJameson Ebeling told WSN. “We were kind of tossed out of any kind of conversation.”

Heading into the tournament, the Violets had a regular season record of 18-5. The team had a strong start after winning two of three matches in a season-opening trip to California — including a 3-1 takedown of California Lutheran University, who the Violets lost to in the 2025 NCAA Tournament. By the start of March, NYU had only lost three of its first 15 games, with its most recent defeat coming from a five-set match against Springfield College, the No. 1-ranked team in the country.

Six of the team’s seven conference matchups were scheduled for March, a period that carried more weight toward NCAA Tournament selection. After falling 3-2 to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and 3-1 against SUNY New Paltz, the Violets couldn’t afford another defeat in the UVC with just three matches remaining. 

“All of a sudden, games started to matter,” Evans said. “We had to start winning games and I felt the pressure, people felt the pressure, and people weren’t playing as well.”

Evans took on the captaincy position for the first time this season, joined by sophomore libero Bennet Tchaikovsky and senior outside hitter Jake Upham. After the team’s loss against SUNY New Paltz, he took it upon himself to get the team’s focus back on track. He gathered the team and showed them footage from his first year, when the Violets had similarly struggled midseason.

“I was pulling away — everybody was kind of playing for themselves,” Evans said. “So I just brought the team together, showed everybody film of what our team looks like, and was like: ‘We need to win this for us.’”

The Violets went on to win the last three games of the season — all in the conference. With NCAAs drawing close, all that was left for the team to do was to perform at the UVC Tournament — the winner of which earns an automatic bid to the national tournament.

In the opening round of the conference tournament, NYU stormed past its first opponent, St. John Fisher University, 3-0, before falling 3-1 to MIT in the second round and ending its UVC run. The Violets’ regular season record was strong enough to earn an NCAA bid, though the team knew that it would be hard to make it deep into the tournament without Nguyen.

“Going into the playoffs, the mindset was like, got nothing to lose, go out here and play as hard as you can,” Evans said. “We get into the tournament, we’ve got a shot, and that’s all we need.”

Even though the Violets were swept out of the NCAAs, the team’s young core and veteran presence has given reason for optimism. The team capped off a rebuilding season by finishing regular-season play with a No. 3 ranking in the UVC and an NCAA appearance. 

“Next year will be a pivotal year for them,” Upham told WSN. “Emerson’s still here, Devyn’s still here. These guys are developing physically as well as experience-wise, and the sky’s the limit for them. They’re gonna have an exceptional season, if they’re able to keep developing this great culture that we have.”

Contact Sherry Chen at [email protected].