IU finishes 2nd in Big Ten tournament

The IU men's club volleyball team placed second Saturday in the Big Ten tournament in Minneapolis, Minn.\nThe team earned the seed with its play in the regular season and was able to defeat two ranked teams on the way to the championship match. But the team’s goal of the day was to win its opening pool, said sophomore defensive specialist John McSorley. \nThe Hoosiers came into the tournament with a 9-8 record and had pool play matches against Minnesota and No. 16 Michigan State. IU was unable to overcome the tournament host Golden Gophers in a tight three-game match, but knocked off the Spartans in two games.\n“That first loss was really devastating at the time,” McSorley said. “But we really got our act together against Michigan State to beat them in two games which gave us a lot of momentum for the day. Confidence-wise, it was a really helpful game for us.”\nIU won its pool in a tiebreaker giving the team a bye in the first round of single-elimination. IU faced in-state rival Purdue in the quarterfinals and the win against the Boilermakers pinned the Hoosiers against No. 14 Ohio State in the semis.\nThe Hoosiers conquered their second-ranked team of the day with a three-match win against the Buckeyes. \n“That was a really exciting match with a lot of players really stepping up,” McSorley said. “One of our seniors, David Reid, gave us a lot of momentum with his serves and our entire defense really stepped it up.”\nThe win created a No. 3 Illinois-versus-IU championship matchup.\nIU was unable to knock off its third-ranked team opponent of the day as it lost in two games to the Illini, giving the Hoosiers second place in the tournament.\nThe Hoosiers didn’t leave empty handed, though.\nReid was named to the First Team All Big Ten while senior outside hitter Alex Lepp and senior setter Bryan Hara received Big Ten Honorable Mentions. Reid, Lepp and Hara were also all named to the All Big Ten Tournament Team.\nThe Hoosiers leave today to travel to the Las Vegas Open this weekend.\n“We are really excited to go to Vegas to play some West Coast teams,” McSorley said. “We don’t get to play them much and we get to play a good (No. 2) Arizona team. Plus it’s in Las Vegas.”