The Wake

The women’s club volleyball team is a dedicated group of girls playing for the love of the game. Their season starts in mid-September and runs through April. The club is split into two teams, the A-team and the B-team. The women compete in weekend tournaments throughout the midwest. They also attend the National Intramural and Recreation Sports Association national championships at the end of the season. The women’s club has been very successful in the past at the NIRSA. The championship was held in Minneapolis in 1995, and the girls took second place. A year later, the championship was held in Toledo, Ohio, where the girls took first place and walked away national champions.

The Wake talked with the Vice President of the women’s club volleyball team, Suzy Maul, to learn about this year’s squad.

The Wake: Is the team planning on traveling to travel to Kansas City, Missouri, for the NIRSA?

Suzy Maul: Yeah, they usually fall on the second week in April, generally over Easter weekend. It’s always fun to travel for a national tournament because we get to see another part of the country. Our travel is limited; the farthest we usually go is 10 hours to play schools such as the University of Iowa, Michigan or Wisconsin. We get to see schools we don’t typically see in our regular season like California and schools out East.

The Wake: How competitive is the NIRSA?

Maul: Almost every team we compete against during our regular season goes to that tournament. Club teams work up to play in the tournament; it’s the pinnacle of every club’s season.

The Wake: How is the team looking this year?

Maul: Hard to tell right now, a lot of fourth- and fifth-year players graduated or moved. It’ll be interesting to see what new players we get. A solid number of players came out for tryouts … lots of impressive new talent for both teams A and B … a great outlook for 2006-7 season

The Wake: What do you think of your schedule this year?

Maul: It’s pretty premature as far as scheduling goes. We play three of four tournaments in the fall. Our spring season gets busier as we gear up for nationals. There are usually 12 teams in the tournament pool so we get to play and see a variety of teams. We could potentially play six or seven different schools throughout a weekend-long tournament. We travel to Washington University on October 14, Marquette University on November 11 and Minnesota State University on December 2 for our fall tournaments.

The Wake: Do you get the opportunity to compete against a lot of Big Ten Schools?

Maul: There are a lot of big ten schools with club teams but whether or not we play them depends on were they are located. Illinois draws the most people because they are centrally located. When we host tournaments we see schools like the University of Wisconsin, Michigan, Colorado, Iowa and sometimes Illinois.

The Wake: Which school would you like to beat the most?

Maul: Iowa State is a huge rivalry for us; it should be a good game. The University of Wisconsin-Marquette is also a very good team.

Be sure to catch the women’s club volleyball team when they host a game on campus this March.