Perfect record wins team No. 1 in Big Ten regular season

The current record of the men's club volleyball team resembles perfection. The Hoosiers returned from Iowa Saturday with a 16-0 record and the Big Ten regular season title under their belt.\nThe Hoosiers began the weekend traveling to Iowa to compete in the final leg of the Big Ten Qualifier, a task with its share of problems. The men had four matches in the day-long competition, including No. 4 Illinois, which defeated the Hoosiers in pre-season play. \nThe Hoosiers entered the second round of Big Ten play undefeated and holding the No. 3 ranking in the nation. Those statistics skyrocketed the Hoosiers into position to face teams determined to award the Hoosiers their first loss of the season.\n"Our goal for the weekend was to go out and beat the teams so bad that they feel that they don't belong on the same court with us," sophomore JT Gripe said. "The weeks that we had leading up to the second qualifier gave us the chance to get better and work on the things that we need to work on to be the Big Ten champions in regular season."\nThe hard work during the two weeks the team had to prepare paid off when the Hoosiers began the first three matches sweeping Northwestern, No. 7 Michigan State and Minnesota all in two out of three games. The final match of the qualifier showed that the Hoosiers are human, as they fell to Illinois in the first game of the match, but rallied back to win the next two games.\n"After the first game we all walked to the bench, and we all kind of laughed. We were like, 'what just happened? Are we playing volleyball?'" freshman Dave Reid said.\n"Illinois was playing different than we had ever been played. The second game we came out and things just clicked for us The third game we had some runs, and we played our volleyball."\nThe Hoosiers' win was no surprise to the club president, junior Jeremy Levy. \n"Having two weeks off allowed us to heal injuries, and it also allowed us to refocus our efforts of going after our goal of winning the Big Ten," Levy said. "We knew that teams were coming into the qualifier out for us, but we knew we had to work hard and out-hustle the competition to win, and that\'s what we accomplished. It felt good to win the Big Ten regular season because it was the first time Indiana has won it. Last year we came up short and this year we came in with the goal to win."\nThe Hoosiers' next action is scheduled for March 2 and 3 when they host the Hoosier-Illini Classic. The tournament includes 32 teams from across the country including No. 4 Illinois, No. 7 Eckerd, No. 9 MSU, No. 20 Ball State and No. 21 Purdue. \n"We know that we are capable of winning the classic," Gripe said. "We are going to have teams that come out and try to bounce balls against us, and if they try that they are going to get housed. They are going to try to play like we do and we will still be better at it. We play sloppy, and that's how we win"