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On Tap with Zachary Shaw

In the midst of a long schedule that includes many of the nation’s top squads, men’s volleyball will take on Loyola University Chicago and Lewis University next week. The two schools were last year’s NCAA champion and runner-up, respectively. Despite the difficulty, senior outside hitter Zachary Shaw recently sat down with The Daily Princetonian to discuss teammates, health and Argentinian mountains.

The Daily Princetonian: What has been your favorite moment of the season thus far?

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Zachary Shaw: Pretty typical answer is when someone gets hits in the face. Honestly the plays that are really funny are the best, in practice at least. Our setter got hit in the face once —the ball came right back in his face.

DP: How do you maintain that positivity in games?

ZS: Our recent game against George Mason was a tough game, they played really well and we played ok. There was a sequence of plays when we got roofed straight down three times in a row. You can either be depressed or you can just laugh it off.

DP: What are some of the team’s favorite traditions?

ZS: We have this long, sought-out tradition of going to Chili’s on our away trips that started with Brad Howard, our food czar (we have all these designated roles on our team). At Chili’s, we’re only allowed to get water as a drink. My choices for entrée vary between a burrito, quesadilla, salad or salmon dish.

DP: What do you do to pass the time on road trips?

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ZS: On the way there we just work or watch film for the game. Then on the way back we will either watch a movie —[junior setter] Kurt [Thiemann] is in charge —or play the name game. You have to come up with as many famous names as possible within a set period of time.

DP: If you couldn’t play volleyball which sport would you play and why?

ZS: Right now I’d probably play soccer because I used to play soccer in high school. I could actually play at a decently high level. If I could go anywhere I would play handball. We just finished our handball championship. We played against the entire men’s soccer team last night, it was pretty fun.

DP: What is the craziest practice you’ve ever been in?

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ZS: This might not be the craziest one, but there was this one time when Kurt got blocked like ten times in a row. Every time he was blocked just straight down. That was pretty funny.

DP: What is one fun fact that most people do not know about you?

ZS: I almost died climbing a mountain in Argentina. There was this decently sized mountain that had a trail that you were supposed to take but I didn’t know where the trail was. It was pretty treacherous and there were some pretty steep places where if I had made a misstep I would have died.