Arizona biggest test for Hoosiers

Thursday night, the No. 3 IU men's club volleyball team boarded the plane toward Arizona for their first out of region tournament of the season. The team will play an exhibition against Arizona on Friday before the actual tournament starts in which Arizona will be participating as well. The common consensus between the players, senior Jeremy Levy and junior JT Gripe, as well as coach Ryan Theis, is that playing the No. 1 ranked Arizona will be the team's biggest challenge. \nLevy, who is currently in his third year as captain of the team, is happy to be going out of region for this tournament, especially in Arizona where the weather is beautiful. \nThe team did not get a chance to play Arizona last year during the season, but Levy said he looks forward to stepping up to the challenge of playing Arizona. \nAfter the exhibition game today, the team will go into tournament play on Saturday and Sunday. The tournament is set up as pool play. For example, on Saturday each team is in a pool with four or five other teams, and each team plays the others. Then each team is seeded for the single elimination round on Sunday. Therefore, depending on how well each team does on Saturday determines where they will be seeded on Sunday. \nSunday will be a Sweet Sixteen. The teams who make it to the Sweet Sixteen will have to win four matches on Sunday to become the champions. Levy said he doesn't think it should be a problem making it into this tournament, considering that IU is the second highest ranking team in the tournament after Arizona. \nLevy said Saturday and Sunday will bring a lot of good teams, including No. 7 ranked UC-Davis, and of course No. 1 Arizona. \n"It will be a huge challenge for us, kind of a measuring stick to see exactly where we are out of region," Levy said. "(Arizona is) number one again this year in the nation, so that's gonna be a lot of fun, a big test." \nLevy was not the only Hoosier excited about this tournament. Fellow teammate and roommate Gripe was also anxious about the tournament. \n"First of all, I can't wait to get a shot at Arizona. I mean they're No. 1 and we're No. 3 ... you know we've got something to prove," he said. "They're a great, great team, and it'll be fun to see how we match up against them. I mean, they're the perennial No. 1. If we're gonna accomplish all our goals, they're who we have to go through." \nTheis, who is in his fifth year coaching the team is also looking forward to beating Arizona. \nTheis said his players are well prepared although Arizona's players are physically stronger. \nHe said he was going to work his players harder than normal in preparation for the Wildcats. He said he was going to use some tough equipment to account for the physical players that Arizona has. \nDuring Tuesday's practice Levy and Gripe both said this year the team has the most potential to succeed. \n"I'm just really excited for this year," Levy said. "It should be a lot of fun, it's my last year and I'm looking forward to good things with this team"