Metro – Tie For 3rd Place

The Metro men’s club volleyball team competed in their first tournament of the year Jan. 17 at Chaparral High School in Parker.

Head Coach Gavin Markovits said the team did better than he had expected, tying for third place at the USA Volleyball Rocky Mountain Regional Tournament.

Metro’s Alex Johnson in a mid-air battle during a match against the Colorado Masters at Chapparel High School Jan. 17. Metro lost the match 13-15 after going 3-5 in eight games. Photo by Sean Mullins • smullin5@mscd.edu

“I think that we actually played better than I had expected,” Markovits said. “I thought we’d be a little bit more green, and a little bit more inconsistent.”

The RMR tournament was a round robin tournament consisting of team pools made up of five adult teams. The five teams in each pool play each other, with the top three teams from each pool advancing to a playoff round. The Metro team was the only school team competing at the tournament, Markovits said.

“This was just all other adult teams,” Markovits said. “Usually we’ll see Mines or we might see a club team from CSU or Mesa or something, but they were not in this tournament.”

Out of four games, the team finished with two wins and an accompanying two losses earning them a tie for third place.

“I feel like it was a pretty good result for us, considering it was our first tournament of the year,” Markovits said.

This is the first time that the club team competed after practicing all fall semester, and Markovits said that the strength of the team lies within its youth.

“I think we’re physical,” Markovits said. “I think we’re a pretty athletic team and we’re young, so that helps. We’re playing against a lot of adults who maybe aren’t as physical or athletic as we are. So I think that’s something, definitely, that is our strong suite.”

Not only was the RMR tournament a chance for the team to compete with each other for the first time, but Markovits said it gave the young players some good experience for the future.

“We have four or five freshmen on the court, so I felt like it was a good stepping stone for us, you know, for further tournaments,” Markovits said.

Throughout the tournament, veteran leadership from outside hitter Chris Dumville gave the team a valuable element of consistency.

“Chris Dumville played really well,” Markovits said. “He’s an outside hitter that returned from last year, so he’s playing for us again this year. He’s probably our most consistent hitter and overall player.”

With the leadership of Dumville helping to guide the young players, the team continued to improve throughout the tournament.

“I think we came together as a team and started to compete pretty well,” Markovits said. “I think we got better every match, for the most part, and I think that’s what you hope to do as a coach.”

The team made significant strides of improvement on their way to a third place tie, but there are still elements of the game that they need to work on.

“I think we can find a little bit more diverse of an offense, I think we’re pretty basic right now,” Markovits said. “Those are definitely two things that we’re going to work on here in the near future.”

Although the team does not have an official schedule, Markovits said they are getting ready to compete for the second time this season Feb. 21.