WCU made a strong showing yet again this year in the confrence and at the season finale MACVC tournament.  With an overall record of 20-6-1, WCU won the highly contested Central Division Championship, and a record 4 Golden Ram players were given Central Division Honors. 

The MACVC tournament was held on April 6 2002 at Messiah College.  For WCU, this was a familiar routine.  The Rams came into the tournament ranked #3 behind the west's Messiah #1 and Millersville #2.  WCU's first match in pool play was against a tough Central division rival, Drexel University #11.  Drexel did not play very well in the match, or the tournament for that matter. WCU overpowered Drexel easily, and won the match in 2 games.

The second match for the Rams was Bloomsburg #14.  This was WCU's easiest game on paper, and it proved to be easy in reality as well.  WCU blew out Bloomsburg in two games so badly, that it looked a bit like Bloomsburg gave up.  WCU was able to rest the starting team for the eventual tougher matches.

Philadelphia University #6 was ranked second in the pool and WCU's final pool-play opponent.  Phila U was undefeated in the MACVC this year, and WCU was out to change that fact.  Playing with great confidence and excellent execution. WCU again blew out Phila U in two games. Phila U. did make the playoff round however. At this point, pool-play was over, and WCU was playing so well that other teams had difficulty just staying in the games.  But, then came the long delays that tournaments bring.  

After about 3 hours, WCU had to get back up and start the playoff run that could take them to the MACVC Championship.  First up for WCU was Lehigh #4 who was upset by Villanova #5 in pool-play.  WCU played Lehigh in a regular season match and swept them 3-0.  This gave the Rams a mental advantage over Lehigh.  In the first game WCU started very slow.  They played very differently from their pool-play style.  The defense was flat, and the offense was just adequate.  The Rams managed to win a close first game vs. Lehigh, but they felt like their volleyball had to get better in order to stay alive in the tourney.  In the second game WCU again took over.  They gave Lehigh very little breathing room with their block, and the Ram offense was starting to get back on track.  That led to a 2-0 victory over Lehigh, and brought up the next and toughest opponent in the tourney, Millersville.

Millersville #2 was a good draw for the Rams.  The Rams upset Millersville in their first match of the year back in January, and they knew they had a chance for another upset.  For fans of the sport of volleyball, this was a great match. In the first game, There were constant lead changes, and the teams were virtually tied the whole time.  Both teams were playing at an extremely high level - a level that neither team had reached during the regular season.  The attacks were huge and the blocking was great for both sides.  Every pass was so important because the game was so close.  WCU had the lead at 25-24 in this game, when Millersville ran off three straight points to win the game 27-25.  It was a disheartening loss for the Golden Rams.  Having worked that hard just to lose the game  made the second game seem to be a nearly impossible task, and so it was.  

WCU didn't seem to be effected by the loss to Millersville, because they took the early lead in the second game 5-2.  Millersville sensed WCU gaining confidence and called a Timeout.  WCU maintained its advantage until the score evened at 15-15.  WCU realized it was again in a raging battle for its tournament life.  The Rams seemed to abandon their ball control, and disciplined offense toward the end of this game.  Some WCU players felt they had no answer for the Millersville block.  WCU's block didn't let one Millersville ball get through, but Ville didn't need to get through the block.  Their two outside hitters pounded our blockers hands and got kills off of block touches.  This was just great hitting.  The score went to 19-24 in favor of Millersville, and WCU had one more chance.  The Rams were able to get to 20 and get the ball back. Senior, Mike Shearer went back to serve.  With Ville up 24-20, Mike knew he could not miss a serve.  His first serve was very fast and resulted in a hitting error for Ville/point for the Rams.  Now 21-24, Mike had shaken off the nerves for his next serve.  He absolutely crushed the second serve, and Millersville couldn't handle it - at first. Off the Ville pass, the ball was heading for the plane of the net, when Millersville All-tournament setter Keith Kohler redirected the ball past the WCU block and just out of the diving reach of senior All-tournament Libero Brian Simmons.  That ended WCU's run for the 2002 MACVC Championship. 21-25 loss to Millersville.

Millersville didn't stop there, however. They continued to play at an incredibly high level, and took Messiah #1 in two games relatively easily. Messiah had some flashes of excellence, but they were less experienced then Millersville.  Millersville had the best defensive run the MACVC has ever seen by handling everything WCU and Messiah had to throw at them. It was a great way to win their first MACVC Championship.  Congratulations to Millersville University Men's Volleyball, and to WCUMVB for a great season.

For WCU, its on to the national tournament, and then back out to the summer sand courts.  The Rams will be back next year.

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4.3.02
WCU defeats Eastern University 3-1 (26-24, 25-21, 24-26, 25-18)

WCU started the match slow and struggled for the entire first game.  The Rams were down 20-24 in the first, and it looked like Eastern was going to take the first game.  Then, senior Owen Stanley went back to serve.  The Rams blocking and defense took over from there and allowed Owen to serve out the game 26-24.  It was an unlikely ending to a rally scoring game.

The second game was better for the Rams.  Eastern was never really in the game, after Mike Shearer gave the Rams a 3 point lead with some excellent serving.  The Rams took the second game easily, 25-21 on the strength of our side-out game. 

WCU played some reserve players in the third game and almost beat the Eagles in three.  Sophomore Trip Remar registered an ace in the game, and Freshman Fred Bare had three kills. WCU fell just short of winning the third however, and went back to the starting line-up for the fourth game. 24-26.

The final game was an easy win for the Rams. Senior Jason Longo blocked 3 balls in the game and had 3 kills.  The defense of Libero Brian Simmons nullified Eastern's attack, and the hitting of Steve Saunders and Keith Mauer was too good for the Eastern Eagles.  The Rams won easily at 25-18.

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4.1.02
WCU beats KU to win the Central Division Championship for the second year in a row.

WCU beat KU 3-2 (25-21, 22-25, 18-25, 25-22, 15-9)

The Golden Rams gave the home fans a scare against Kutztown University.  The Rams started the match very tenative.  Poor passing and offensive execution made winning the first game difficult.  But Senior middle hitter Jason Longo lead the Rams to a 25-21 victory.

The Kutztown Cougars took advantage of the Rams problems, and wont the next two games by playing some solid ball.  KU was able dig our hitters, and they found some holes in our blocks.   WCU was having problems scoring on KU in the second and third games, and they couldn't stop KU's hitters. 

WCU finally turned things around in the fourth game.  The Rams held a two point advantage for much of the game, and around the 20th point Senior OPP Mike Shearer score on some powerful jump-serves to win the game.

By the fifth game, WCU's A game had returned.  KU tried to keep up, but they could not.  The Rams scored the first 4 points causing KU to take a timeout.  Then the teams switched sides with WCU leading 8-4.  The Rams showed their complex offense in the later stages of the match and the KU block was very confused.  WCU was getting open looks a some hits, and took full advantage to win the 5th game 15-9.

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2.28.02
WCU swept PSU Berks last night.  Scores were 3-0 (25-20, 25-20, 25-19).

The Golden Rams came out swinging hard in this match.   PSU started off strong and held the early lead in the first set,  but the match tone wasset halfway through the first game when, senior, Mike Shearer ripped off 6 jump-serves in a row to help the Rams take the lead. WCU then started blocking what seemed like every other ball.  Despite some poor passing on WCU's part in the first game, they blocked their way to victory in the first set, 25-20.

The second set was a much more dominating performance by the Rams.  They duplicated the serving excellence and blocking of game one, and added better passing to the mix.  WCU controlled the set and was able to pull out the playbook and run some more complex plays.  PSU seemed to be losing it's composure in this set, and thus the set ended with a PSU player drawing a yellow and a subsequent red card.  It was a upbeat end for WCU, however, as they won the set 25-20.

Third set was a wash for both teams.  With a PSU player ejected from the match, (by himself I believe) WCU had no problem closing out the match.  The reserve Rams came into the third set and played steady volleyball.  WCU's middles continued to dominate PSU by blocking a majority of their attacks.  In the anti-climactic ending WCU defeated PSU 25-19 in the third set to win the match.

WCU is now 3-1 in division play, with three divisional matches left to decide the 2002 central division championship.

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2.20.02
WCU came back to defeat division rival Drexel University - 3-2 (25-17,25-20,22-25,17-25,15-13)

The Rams came out swinging early in this MACVC Central Division match.  They  have started slow in recent matches, which has led to insurmountable deficits and ultimately, losses.  That was reversed in this match.  WCU jumped all over Drexel in game one leading 20-12 at one point.  WCU was blocking well, and Drexel could not find a way around it. 25-17.

With our blocking in place, we swung the momentum completely in our favor.  The offense, led by Greg Jansen, came alive in the second game, and although Drexel was hitting better, the Rams were not to be stopped.  Our outside hitters, Doug Mistler and Steve Saunders were simply too strong for Drexel in game 2- 25-20.

With the match firmly in hand WCU went to the bench for some relief for the starters.  Unfortunately for WCU, this woke up the sleeping Drexel Dragons.  With an impressive offensive display by Drexel's #3 (Max Z.), Drexel forced WCU to lose it's balance in game 3.  WCU put the first team back in the game but they could not stop the Dragons offense and excellent serving.  22-25.

By game four, WCU was worried that Drexel was taking control of the match.  This had WCU playing tentatively, and sending Drexel many free balls.  With the free balls, Drexel's offense was still clicking, and WCU's passing began to fade in game 4.  Drexel started winning the middle battle in this game, and WCU had no answer.  Drexel almost played a mistake free game 4 and easily won-  17-25.

Well WCU has seen enough 5th games for the whole season already, but they had another in this match.  WCU came out dangerously flat in game 5, and Drexel's momentum in game 4 had completely carried over.  With the score 5-10 in favor of Drexel it looked like WCU was going to have another bitter ending to this match.  That is until someone handed the volleyball to Senior, Mike Shearer.  Once Mike had the ball, he didn't let go.  Mike brought the Rams back into the match with 3 aces on 5 serves, and one kill from the back row.  With the score now 10-11 in favor of Drexel, it was Drexel's turn to handle the pressure.  However, they could not.  The Dragons promptly missed a jump-serve, hit a ball into the net, and gave WCU a much coveted 5th game free ball.  Mike killed that free ball from the back row giving WCU the lead in the fifth game 14-12.  We exchanged sideouts to finish off the Dragons 15-13 in the fifth game.

WCU is slowly gaining strength and experience this year.  Once the injuries heal and the team begins to gel, WCU will be a leading contender for the elusive MACVC title.  Drexel is another strong central division team.  With E-town, Drexel, Villanova, and WCU all playing at a high level, the central division looks like the strongest division in the MACVC this year.

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2.12.02
WCU lost to Messiah College last night 2-3 (20-25,17-25, 25-20, 25-22, 12-15)

The Rams pulled their late match disappearing act in the fifth game again to give Messiah a victory.  But WCU showed that we can compete and beat any of the teams in the league.

WCU came out in the first game practically asleep.  Our passing was flat, and Messiah's excellent serving didn't make things easier on us.  With lackluster effort and ball control, we lost the first game without much commotion.

WCU is used to long matches this season, and we fully expected to take advantage of Messiah's complacency in the second game.  However, we still couldn't pass, and our block and defense was non-existent.  The bright spot was that our offense woke up, and that was something to build on.  If we could get some passes, we could start to win some points back.  But, not until the third game.

In the third WCU looked awesome.  Messiah ran out of jump-serves, and WCU started to pass nails to setter Greg Jansen. This opened up the game for our powerful hitters to take over, and MH Jason Longo put on a display of excellent hitting.   He used the entire bag of tricks to find the floor.  WCU cruised in the third 25-20.

Much the same story in the fourth.  WCU looked like the best team in the league, by far, as we had Messiah down 22-10.  We brought our jump-serves out, and some excellent float serves from Owen Stanley put Messiah in a big hole.  However, Messiah did comeback and scored 10 points in a row to lose the 4th game only by three 25-22. This is a case where rally scoring decided the outcome.  I still hate it.

The fourth game pattern carried to the fifth game as WCU stayed ahead of Messiah 8-7 at the half-way point.  We pushed the score to 11-9 when Messiah took over, and WCU disappeared.  WCU was caught in a two-hitter rotation when Messiah turned their defense switch to "super-D".  They blocked one ball straight down, and they forced us to hit one out-of-bounds to take the lead 12-11. We elected to send them a free ball, and on a controversial "touch" call Messiah got to 13.  We traded two side-outs, and finally lost on a down-ref "net" call 12-15. 

Both teams played well in the fifth game, and both are strong contenders in the MACVC.

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2.11.02
WCU beat MACVC Central Division team Franklin & Marshall 3-0  (25-11, 25-14, 25-16). 
F&M is a very inexperienced team and was no match for the Golden Rams.  After our A-team won the first game 25-11.  We used the entire team to finish off F&M in three.  Two new WCU players made their debut in this match.  Andy Ebersole, and Matt ?.  It's on to Messiah tonight for an inter-division showdown.

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2.10.02
WCU hosted MACVC west team Susquehanna Friday Feb 8th.  SusQ defeated WCU 2-3 (18-25, 25-20, 21-25, 25-17, 10-15)

From the start both teams knew it would be a tough match.  WCU came in hoping to rebound from at loss earlier in the week to Nova.  But SusQ came in looking to make their first statement of the year to the league.  Since they are without their all-division player and Championship MVP (Scott Trumbauer), many people have wondered if SusQ is still a contender.  Well, they are. 

SusQ started off very strong in the first game WCU could only get a few sideouts to keep pace with them.  Their offense was unstoppable in the first game, and they threw some good blocking in there to sufficiently scare us in the first game.

We are a resilient bunch and definitely would make SusQ earn their victory.  With some complex offense of our own, we dazzled the SusQ block in the second game, and took a convicing victory in the second game that would signal our third consecutive 5 game match.

SusQ broke back in the third game with much the same gameplan as the first game.  They used the middle.  They were passing well, and we were inconsistent on the offensive end.  This is a time where we could use our starting outside hitter, Keith Mauer. But, he is healing a broken hand! SusQ would stay strong to win the third game 25-21.

Our backs were against the wall in the fourth.  Knowing that a 1-3 loss would look pretty bad, WCU looked to senior all-division OPP hitter, Mike Shearer, for a lift.  He came through with 5 service aces that took SusQ completely out of their game.  WCU won the fourth in convincing fashion with great defense, and great serving 25-17.

On to the all-important fifth game:  SusQ is strong in the middle, and they exploited their advantage there when it mattered most.  Both teams were on their game in the first half of the game, and we changed sides at 8-7.  SusQ threw in a sideout and block to take their lead to 10-7.  A hitting error from WCU made the score  11-7 and gave SusQ the breathing room they needed to finish the game.   Both teams were inconsitent throughout the whole match, and it probably could have gone either way.  We will regroup and try to find some consistency in the coming weeks.

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2.07.02
Coming off a big win, the WCU Golden Rams lost to division rival Villanova on Feb 6. WCU, without the services of OH-Keith Mauer, let Nova build confidence during their first match back in the MACVC. Scores were 2-3 (25-12, 18-25, 23-25, 25-23, 12-15).

Villanova is a hard team to figure out. After taking a year off, they have come back very strong to post early season wins against WCU, PSU berks, and Drexel. I suppose we took them a bit lightly at first as we coasted to a first game blowout of 25-12. 

The second game was a different story. After Nova couldn't pass a ball in the first game. They didn't seem to miss a pass for the rest of the match. That nullified our good serving, and left the points scoring up to the net play of both teams. Behind some good jump-serving, Nova was able to rattle our ball control game, and force us to hit from tough positions. They beat us easily in Game 2, 18-25.

By the third game both teams had settled down for a battle. We traded the lead of and on in the third and fourth games, and both teams were passing and hitting well. It seems we left some blocking and defense back at Millersville, because we didn't have the ability to pull away from Nova. Game 3 (23-25), game 4 (25-23).

In the fifth, both teams came out strong. This is what you want to see in these matches- great volleyball, and great effort on the part of both teams. Two killer jump-serves from  Nova's setter sent the score in their favor by a few points. Their aggressive style of jump-serving could have backfired on them, but they aced when it mattered, and held on to win 12-15. 

I'm sure the rest of the MACVC will take notice of this resurgent team soon enough, as we have.

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2.03.02
WCUMVB defeats Millersville University:  3-2 (24-26, 25-17, 23-25, 25-21, 15-11)

WCU came to Millersville a definite threat to win after having lost the last three meetings by a total of 6 points. As always, the atmosphere felt more like the MACVC championship match than an early season regular match. 

With the crowd yelling that WCU "hits like a bunch of girls", we concluded warm-ups and started the match. Tensions were high as WCU jumped on top early and lead 15-12 half way through the first game. We felt that we could take Ville out in three games, if we could steal the first game. At 24-21, WCU showed some first match inconsistency, and Ville tightened up their block to come back and win the first game, 26-24.

Ville began mixing up the line up in game two, and WCU started going to the bench as well. It was evident that we would need every advantage to beat Ville at home. WCU ended up using 11 players in the match, and I'm sure Ville used almost as many. Game two went to WCU, as our defense started to turn the tide. Senior/Libero Brian Simmons (arguably the best defender in MACVC) neutralized the Ville jump serve, and made Ville pay by digging anything, even slightly, hit from off the net. Game two sent a message to Ville that we wouldn't give them the match. Much to the crowd's dismay- 25-17.

Ville mustered a comeback in game 3 behind the Jump-serving of their setter, Keith. After Ville stretched the lead to 20-14, WCU came back, but could not put Ville away. They have great hitters, and can really pound the ball when their passing is on. Ville took game three 23-25.

Sighting a weakness in Ville's defense, WCU exploited the Middle blockers of Ville to take game 4. Senior Jason Longo (MB) started to assert himself in this game, and proved stronger than Ville's middle attack.  After freshman Keith Mauer broke his hand in the third game, things were a bit scary for us, but our defense was too good for the Ville hitters, and we won game four 25-21.

In game five we just wanted to remain consistent, and pass and serve. Well I guess senior setter Greg Jansen didn't get the message, because he registered two aces in the fifth game. Ville stayed close at the break (8-6). But, in the end it was our passing duo of Mike Shearer and Brian Simmons that gave our offense the room it needed to pick Ville's defense apart. Combined with some of the best defense I have ever seen in the League, our offense proved to Ville and the crowd, that we're a skilled "bunch of girls", as WCU won the 5th game 15-11.

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