Team earns first of 3 goals with Big Ten win

The taste of victory is sweet for the men's volleyball team.\nAfter losing their last two games to Utah and Texas A&M in the Great Eight Tournament March 9, the men seemed to be back on track March 23 and 24 at the Big Ten Conferance Championship, taking first place. \nEntering the weekend with a 27-3 record, the Hoosiers began the tournament looking to accomplish one of the three goals they had set for themselves at the beginning of the season: Win the Big Ten Championship, Midwestern Intercollegiate Volleyball Association Championship, and National Intramural Recreational Sports Asso-ciation National Champ-ionship. The team's dreams have begun to play out as the team accomplished the first goal on Sunday.\n"We feel really confident going into the next tournament," junior club president Jeremy Levy said."We go in as the No. 1 seed. We had three goals for ourselves this season…we are hoping to capture the next in two weeks."\nThe men began the tournament with two rounds of pool play, in which they successfully knocked down Iowa and Minnesota in two games. The quarterfinal match was played against Ohio State, another two-game win for the Hoosiers. The team advanced to the semifinal round against Michigan, winning by 16 points in the first game and pulling out a 25-23 defeat in the second. \nThe championship game matched IU against defending Big Ten champion Illinois.\nAfter three games the Hoosiers defeated the Illini to claim the Big Ten championship title. \n"We always like beating Illinois, and the last three times that we have beaten them, they came in with a new line-up and were anxious to try it against us, but once again we beat them," junior Chris Reilly said. "(IU) gets excited to play Illinois, and we always beat them."\nFive Hoosiers also took home individual awards from the tournament and the season. Reilly and club vice president, sophomore J.T. Gripe, were awarded with first-team all-tournament and first-team All-Big Ten. Sophomore Jeff Foott and freshman Dave Reid were awarded with honorable mention for the Big Ten season. Levy was honored with the Libero award for the Big Ten regular season and the tournament.\nGripe was also named MVP for the tournament.\n"It was an honor to be first team, but I think that it's ridiculous because this sport is such a team effort.\n"I mean don't get me wrong, I was very excited about the awards and I told my mom and everything, but everyone on the team had a moment that they carried our team at one time or another. I'm more proud of the Big Ten Champs than anything else," Gripe said.