Men's Volleyball: California powers live up to hype

Most Princeton students look forward to Intersession as a tranquil time before the rigors of the spring semester begin. For the men’s volleyball team, however, the weeklong break was anything but relaxing. As part of their annual training trip to California, Princeton (0-3) faced off against some of the best schools in the country in three matches. The trip out west proved a tough test for the Tigers, who now head into the heart of the season.

Over the course of the tour, Princeton faced California Baptist University (9-4), No. 7 UC Irvine (4-5) and No. 12 UC San Diego (3-6). The Tigers won a set in their first match against Cal Baptist — the top-ranked team in the NAIA — but were unable to repeat the act against defending NCAA champion UC Irvine and UC San Diego, losing both matches in straight sets.

Though Princeton’s results appeared to be less than stellar, head coach Sam Shweisky said he was pleased with the team’s overall performance.

“We faced some of the top teams in the country last week,” Shweisky said. It was the highest level of volleyball we’ll face [this season]. Without a doubt, the speed of the offense was faster than we’ll see in [Eastern Intercollegiate Volleyball Association (EIVA)] play, with the exception of maybe Penn State. So overall, we did well: We took that set off of Cal Baptist and were hanging tough with Irvine. It was just some small runs here and there that cost us those matches.”

Though the Tigers were forced to deal with three consecutive losses, Shweisky said that morale among the players was high and that the hard-fought matches had only strengthened the team’s confidence and resolve.

“When you’re playing the best of the best and are going toe-to-toe with them every step of the way, you start to realize what you’re capable of,” Shweisky explained. “Facing those kinds of squads also helps to cultivate a sense of urgency. It forces us to play at an extremely high level.”

Even though Princeton faced significant challenges throughout its trip, Shweisky said he was confident that the squad would become stronger as a result.

“Our goal was to see the best volleyball in the country and try and figure out where we needed to step up our game,” he added. “Playing [teams like Cal Baptist and UC Irvine] makes your own weaknesses glaringly obvious. That was one of the best things to come out of this trip. There were times when we failed, but that’s just a part of competing with these kinds of schools. The important thing is that we were able to learn from those failures and figure out what we needed to adjust moving forward.”

Senior outside hitter Carl Hamming echoed Shweisky’s sentiment, noting that Princeton’s strong play against the nation’s top teams provided the Tigers with a much-needed boost of confidence.

“As long as the team takes away some confidence from the trip, then it can be considered a success,” Hamming said. “We headed [to California] fully aware that we would be facing competition that can only be matched in the EIVA by Penn State. We now have the confidence to go to George Mason on Saturday and come back with an important road victory.”

Shweisky added that facing the California teams revealed Princeton’s ability to respond to errors quickly and efficiently. This trait will be crucial to the team’s success throughout the rest of the season.

“When we’re playing a match, we’re bound to make mistakes,” Shweisky said. “It might be a missed serve or bad block or something else, but mistakes will happen — that’s just a part of sports. The key is putting the mistakes behind you and not letting them affect the rest of your play. That was one of the biggest things we worked on this past fall, and our ability to play through our mistakes has definitely improved. That’s going to serve us well, because when you make an error, keeping your composure will translate to a win.”

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Aside from the volleyball itself, one of the most memorable parts of the Tigers’ trip was the strong support they enjoyed. Since most of the team calls southern California home — and many former Tigers have come from that region — there was no shortage of screaming Princeton parents, alumni and fans at the team’s three matches.

“Having the kind of support that we got [in California] is just absolutely incredible,” Shweisky said. “I actually think that there was more black and orange in the stands at Irvine than anything else. It really meant a lot to us. Even though we were 3,000 miles away from Princeton, it felt like we still had the home-court advantage.”

Now that the Tigers are back east, the team will look to build on its work in California when they travel to play the New Jersey Institute of Technology on Friday and George Mason on Saturday.