Vassar 2024 Season

茶思饭

The 2023 Season was a memorable one. Vassar men’s volleyball team broke many school records, beat Springfield for the 1st time in 20 years, ranked as #1 team in the nation for the first time in history, won 25 straight games, and made it to the Final 4. For Michelle and me, it was an emotional roller coaster and we thoroughly enjoyed the ride. Never had we thought the 2024 season was going to be even more exciting! The 2023 graduating class represented about 80% of our offensive stats. For the 2024 team, there is a reset of the roster line-up and lower expectations for the season. The season started with a team trip to the Southern California. Not quite as exotic as the Netherlands trip the team took in the previous year, but fun for the team nonetheless. There were activities like the Iron Chef that brought out the cooking talent out of all kids. The presentations were great, the teamwork were world class, and the food were… not bad! While in California, the Season officially kicked off. Billy was again competing for a starting outside hitter position. In the pre-season scrimmages he was playing the starting libero. Their first match was with a weaker team, Adrian, and the coach was rotating through many different line-ups. Billy played just one of the sets and shanked a serve-receive. He was quite upset about himself after the game. The next day, they played two stronger opponents. Shuki and Anat came to the first match to cheer for Billy and Vassar against UC Santa Cruz. Billy got the start, and he played better than the previous day and Vassar won. It put Billy in a better mood. The 2nd match was against California Lutheran (CalLu). CalLu got two transfers this year who are both outstanding. Billy didn’t start, but was inserted into the line-up in the 2nd set. The team fought hard, but we lost a close match 1-3. Billy played well despite the loss. Payne did not make the SoCal trip due to COVID. We felt that we will have a chance to beat them if we meet them again with a full team. After the fun trip to California, the team went back to school, and won most of the matches with two exceptions. They visited Springfield who lost their star Jarrett Anderson to Division 1, but replaced him with a capable rookie. It was a close match and we lost 2:3. Billy played well, but not well enough for the team to win. Another loss was to Lasell after a long bus ride to their campus, and we played without Jacob Kim who was sick. The team usually have a tough time playing a road game after a long bus ride, and this makes Michelle and I want to join their next tough road trip to Rochester. Through these matches, Billy solidified his starting outside hitter role on the team. He passed reliably as usual, and his serves improved significantly. He can serve with power more consistently than before. There was a close match against MIT on the road. Billy served well and led the team with 14 kills to a crucial 3:2 UVC victory. The next important UVC match was against NYU at home. It conflicted with my board meeting, so I only watched it afterwards, but Michelle was able to travel to Vassar and watched it live. Billy popped off and served 6 aces during that match. He led the team with points scored. Vassar cruised to an easy 3:0 victory. Little did we know that we would play NYU two more times, not nearly as easy as this time. I joined Michelle at Vassar after the board meeting, and were able to catch the three weekend games together. We were able to win all those games including the game against Hobart, a new program featuring our star last year Andrew Kim who is now a grad student there. During this trip we also got to meet the other great Vassar parents, including the parents of the incoming freshman class. What a great group of people! After a week in NYC for customer meetings, we took an Amtrak train to Rochester to support the team on their toughest regular season road trip. They will play three top notch teams. Two of them are our perennial UVC rivals, Nazareth and St. John Fisher, and the third one is Southern Virginia University whom we beat in a most exciting match at home in the NCAA quarterfinal last year. We knew how good SVU was, and their entire roster is back this year. First match against Nazareth on Friday was easier than expected, as their star player was injured. That night, however, Billy became sick, vomiting, with diarrhea and fever the whole night and morning. I went to pick him up from the team hotel, and took him to our hotel room to rest. The team took on St. John Fisher without Billy, and played a very close match but lost 2:3. Billy felt a little better and came back to join the bench to cheer for the team during the middle of the match. The team played Southern Virginia next, and we lost 0:3. The good news is that by the end of the day, Billy was feeling much better. It was either a stomach flu or a food poisoning. The bout only lasted less than 24 hours, that unfortunately overlapped with two important matches. Because we lost to St. John Fisher, an UVC rival, they may end up hosting the UVC playoff, and we might need to come to Rochester again to play them, which is always tough. My high school friend Fang is a professor at St. John Fisher, and she and her husband came to watch the games. Unfortunately they didn't get to see Billy play, but Dan, Fang's husband was happy to see St. John Fisher won. We did find time to visit their impressive pear orchard the next day. Billy flew back with us to California for spring break. After the spring break, the season resumed in the earnest. Michelle and my next trip happened at the end of the regular season. Michelle was the organizer of the senior night, to honor the graduating seniors, and I had the task of preparing the senior video, featuring volleyball highlights and fun teammate interviews. I really enjoyed the senior video project, and did the interviews during the previous two trips to SoCal and Vassar. I learned to use the video editing software for the first time, and spent many hours putting the clips together. It was time well spent and I felt I learned more about each of the players on the team during this process. With the video complete, I was looking forward to the senior night event. This trip started with another tough road game, this time against Stevens Institute of Technology, the defending champions. Last season our home victory against them was the most exciting volleyball match I had ever watched to that point. (I didn't know at the time that it was soon to be exceeded not once but twice in this year's post-season). Now playing on their home turf we knew it would be an uphill battle. I invited another high school friend Engene to join us to watch the match. Eugene's wife Yi was a starting middle blocker on the Chinese National Team and a silver medalist at the 1996 olympics. She watched the match with an expert eye. Vassar kept it close in the first set, but lost 0:3 at the end. That's OK, this is a game we could afford to lose - but not the next one. We would have the last UVC match against our old rival New Paltz. To be able to host UVC tournament, we needed to win this match, and get some help from NYU if they can beat St. John Fisher. Guess what, that was exactly how things happened. We beat New Paltz easily on Wednesday, and cheered over streaming for NYU as they beat St. John Fisher in a close 5-setter. We are all set to host the UVC tournament. Winning the UVC tournament would give us an automatic bid into the NCAA tournament. If we were not to win the conference, we'd be at the mercy of a voting committee who would pick two wildcard teams from the non-conference winners. So to give us the best chance of being selected, the game the next day against Springfield was still important. Coincidentally, my niece Sophia got accepted to a number of good colleges including Vassar, and my dad accompanied her as she visited the schools, starting with Vassar. They got to watch both the Springfield match and the senior night match against Hunter. My dad was very happy and proud as he watched the game with his granddaughter, and witnessed his grandson's team taking revenge on Springfield, 3:0. After the senior game victory, my dad and my niece joined us in the senior night celebration as well. It went without a hitch and was well liked by everyone. My senior video was a hit! What a great way to complete the regular season. Little did we know that the real drama this season was only beginning to unfold... Senior Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GyTSg4nV-mw&t=6s In the following weekend Vassar was to host the UVC tournament. We arrived in Newark airport late Friday night, stayed the night at Paramus, and drove to Vassar on Saturday morning. Our semi-final opponent was MIT again. Ever since they got the assistant coaches, their team have become much stronger, with Oh brothers playing setter and outside and Gustafson playing oppo. Carried by the home crowd, Vassar took care of business, and won 3:0. On Sunday we went into the final against NYU confidently. We beat them 3:0 a few weeks ago, and that was a great game for Billy. The first set went as expected and we won easily 25:15. But then everything changed. Their serve-receiving suddenly became flawless, and their blocks became a wall. They dominated the net plays, and displayed good hustle in defense as well. We were no match in the next three sets and lost 1:3. Wow! That was a big surprise. NYU peaked at the end of season, and took full advantage of their big sizes and athletic talent. Their rookie setter is gelling well with the team. NYU advanced to the NCAA tournament, and our fate became very much in doubt. We flew back to California, fully expecting that it was the end of our season this year. We were all pleasantly surprised on Monday 7am, waking up to the explosion of WhatApp messages from the other parents that the committee had picked us as one of the two wildcards! Time to book flights to Boston for the following weekend. Our host will be Wentworth, a team who had been ranked #1 in the country for most of the season, and who only lost 1 match all year. Our first round opponent will be Nichols, also a strong team in their own rights. I took the Friday 6am flight to arrive in time for the first match on Friday afternoon. We won the first set easily 25:12, and eked out a win in the 2nd set 29:27. Their star player Jack Normandin was playing amazingly well as they took the 3rd set 25:21. It was looking shaky, but our team were able to hang tough and kept it together and won the 4th set 25:22. The game could easily have gone the other way. I was proud of our boys who kept their composure. We were happy we survived, and get to play one more match against the host. Wentworth took the other semi-final very easily, and their star outside hitter is 6'8", and he would soon be named the NCAA Player of the Year 2024. Our team knew that we are the underdog, and have nothing to lose. On Saturday morning, I got a text from the coach that the bus driver was sick, and the team needed transportation to the gym. The coach had asked me to be the parent coordinator for the weekend and I was happy that I was of some use. Within 5 minutes, parents with cars raised their hands, and I decided to get a rental car from a nearby small airport. At the rental car place I even persuaded a young family to swap their minivan rental car with me, as I have six big volleyball players to transport. Before noon, we got the entire team to the gym. I told Billy and Coach that this is a good omen for a good match, as an old Chinese saying goes, "it takes a winding road to get to somewhere good." And what a game it was! Every set we fell behind by at least 5-6 points, and every set we caught up, and it all started with the first set. We were behind 21-24 facing three match points. After being able to side-out, it was Billy's turn to serve. Boom, he served an ace, 23-24. They called a time-out to ice the server. After the timeout, boom, another ace, 24-24. And then, another ace! Three aces in a row, and we turned the tide, 25-24. We eventually won the first set 27:25 and that set the tone for the rest of the match, Vassar was here to compete and would not go away easily. Entering the 5th and deciding set, we were behind as well, 9-12. Now it was Payne's turn at the service line, and he did four good serves in a row, took the opponent out of system, and allowed Vassar to get back in the game. It went on to the deuces and side-outs, and at 17-16, Toby was subbed in to serve. He had served short float previously in the set, but decided to serve a jump float long this time. That surprised the Wentworth serve-receiver, and he shanked the serve. Ace! and we advanced into the Final four again! The parents section went crazy. We didn't expect this. I lost my voice cheering. Vaughn was playing like a man possessed, and was able to terminate every ball, and his mom Wendy was stomping the floor behind me throughout the match. Our little section had about 30 parents, while the host had over 300 people cheering. We felt that we held our own in supporting our team. And our entire team were so focused, and fought for every point, never gave up at any point in the match. It was a hard-fought upset victory that I am sure everyone in the team will remember for the rest of their lives. So, Dubuque Iowa, here we come! For the 2nd year in a row, we are in the Final 4, with a very different team as last year. It turned out that NCAA regional weekend was the best ever in history, where 3 out of 4 quarter-finals went to five sets, and all three ended in an upset where the host lost. NYU beat #1 Souther Virginia, which was previously unbeaten this year. I was not too surprised - the way NYU played against us, I thought they had a chance beating any team including SVU. And they did! Also CalLu, who was responsible for our first loss in the season, upsetted #4 Loras. The only host team that won was #2 Stevens. It just so happened that we had lost to all three other semi-finalists, NYU, CalLu and Stevens, this season. So the revenge tour to Iowa! Here is the video of the end of the 5th set against Wentworth: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JFrmNXAyKqc Here is the video of the entire match: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iFOkSs-ewq8 I flew from Boston to Lisbon for a business trip. I presented at a conference at 4pm on Thursday, and then took a flight at 5am on Friday to be able to land in Chicago at 1pm the same day, before renting a car and driving for three hours to arrive in Dubuque two hours before our semi-final game began. This was the third time Vassar men's volleyball team made the Final 4, and previously we had not won single a set in the semifinals. And our opponent? NYU! The team who took out the #1 Southern Virginia, and who beat us two weeks ago in the UVC final. The other semi-final played first. It turned out to be another amazing five-setter upset. Stevens took the first two sets easily, only to be reverse-swept by a spirited CalLu, and the match ended on a winning ace. The Stevens side was sad, as the core of the starting line-up came back this year for grad school, eyeing to defend their national championship. Their star oppo Koby Sherman was Billy's teammate in the high school club team. I talked with his mom, and she gave me good encouragement that last year we were the favorite but lost in semi-final and they went all-the-way. And this year, they were the favorite, and it is our turn to do what they did last year. I took it as a good omen. The game started, and it went back and forth just as expected. We took the first set, while NYU took the next two sets. We got set 4 back, and here we go, another 5-setter! In the fifth set, we were behind 12-14, and the team fought off both match points to make deuce. Both team kept siding out, and Vassar fought off a total of six match points in the process. Billy was responsible with at least two of those with a kill and a solo block. Eventually, Vaughn was the hero again with a monster Solo Block that ended the match, 21:19. Wow! The Volleyball God was with us! And we were into the NCAA Finals for the first time in school history, and not only for volleyball, but for all sports! The team were exhausted, but so happy! Here is the full ending of the exciting 5th set: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i45awH6nH44 Here is the full semifinal match: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Nb6vDppOpI The team took one day of break, and went into the Final on Sunday. What a good way to end the season, playing every possible game, and in the last game against a team whom we lost to at the very beginning of the season. Completing the cycle. The Final turned into another dog-fight. We did a good job containing their outside hitter Jordan Cooper, but their opposite hitter Michael Stahl was having an amazing day. We kept it close in all three sets, but just could not get over the hump. In set 1, Billy was serving 21-24, and he served an ace! I thought the Wentworth movie would play out again, but it was not to be. We lost the rally and lost the first set 22-25. In the 2nd set, Billy went to the service line serving 22-24, again! After CalLu coach's time-out, Billy got a good serve in and Vaughn terminated that point, 23-24. CalLu called time-out again. Billy served hard, but unfortunately it sailed outside, 23-25. In the third set, it was back and forth at the end as well, but it looks that finally the volleyball God got tired helping us, and we lost the 3rd set 23-25. If we could get lucky in one of these three sets, I think this match would have gone the distance again. Here is the video to the whole final match: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ms-EB3hY6pM It was a great ending to a great season for the team. They were sad that they lost the final game for which they had a chance to win, but I am sure they were proud of what they as a team were able to accomplish this year. Arguably not as high on the talent level as last year, the team became more cohesive on and off the court. They fought for each other like a band of brothers and never gave up. Everyone picked everyone up, and the entire bench were cheering intensely throughout every match. The team also improved over the course of the season, and were clutch in the big moments. They far exceeded the expectations, and went further in the NCAA tournament than any Vassar team had gone before: to the National Championship Final. And it left a little room for the team to strive for next year! Can't wait!