Just four years ago the men’s club volleyball team was concerned they wouldn’t have the six required players to form a squad. This year ‘s turnout, however, was far from scant.
The founder of this club, Jon Thomas ’02, has noticed gradually increasing interest in the club among athletes and fans each year. He came to Fairfield with the impression that it offered club volleyball. Disappointed that it didn’t, he decided to establish a team himself.
“I started by making flyers once it was approved by the athletic department. It kind of just snowballed from there,” said Thomas.
This year the turnout was the largest and for the first time cuts had to be made.
“Somewhere between 25 and 30 guys tried out,” said club president Hai Hguyen ’04. “Usually people cut themselves because of the time commitment, but the numbers were just not manageable this year, and we were forced to cut the numbers down ourselves.” The team now has 14 men on its roster.
Surprisingly, the club is a year-round sport. It starts up at the end of September and league tournament play concludes the season in April. Scrimmages and games are played on Saturdays and Sundays, including the most recent which took place last weekend in the Rec Plex Field House.
The club finished with a 2-2 record and finished fourth among the eight teams present. They beat Brown and Wesleyan and fell to Siena and Hartford. Other teams in attendance were WPI, Williams and Stone Hill.
It was a long and arduous Saturday for the guys and that may have contributed to the loss against Hartford, according to Thomas. Hartford was the only team to sweep them 2-0.
“It was a long day. I’m still recovering from the games,” said Thomas on Sunday evening. Thomas is eligible to play because he is taking graduate classes at the university. Although he is no longer the president, Thomas remains the vocal chord of the team as he lets out a euphonious roar after every point.
Thomas, or JT as referred to by most people on campus, says he is purposely vocal because “this is a huge team sport. It can go to ruin if your team doesn’t maintain momentum.”
Last weekends games contribute to the league standings. They are in the B South division of the New England Collegiate Volleyball league. Bigger schools like UConn and Boston College are in the A division.
“We spend most of the season preparing for the tournaments,” said Hguyen. “We’ve been practicing almost every Wednesday and Friday.”
The women’s varsity volleyball team has practiced against them on occasion. They use the standard men’s net which is substantially higher than the women are used to playing on.
“We give them a good game, but if we used a women’s net, we’d get annihilated,” laughed an anonymous men’s team member.
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