The word is out on the street. The bookies in Vegas are spreading the news. If you know what's good for you, don't bet against Caltech. Nearly halfway through the season the Caltech Men's Club Volleyball team has a perfect 7-0 record. The team took on Los Angeles City College on Saturday and defeated them in a sometimes nail biting, sometimes blowout three to one victory. Caltech's starting lineup consisted of Joe White running the offense as usual at setter, Mike Machczynski at opposite, Joel Jones and Steve Sears at outside hitter, Gary Leskowitz and Scott Van Essen at middle blocker with Matt Bergeron providing back row support as a defensive specialist.
In the first game, Caltech stepped out to a commanding lead over the seemingly uninspired LACC players. Despite a playing level less than the monstrous intensity fans had come to expect from the Beaver squad, caltech rather easily took the first game to 14-2. Suddenly ignited, the LACC team came back against a caltech team which was suffering from lack of focus and overconfidence. With a scrappy defense that wouldn't let the ball drop, LACC brought the score back to 14-11. Trying to stem the growing stampede, coaches Suzanne Masuhr and Aaron Kiely called a timeout to rally their team. Trying to find a chemistry that worked, they substituted Nicklaus Lorenzen in at middle blocker. Caltech finally scored to finish the first game 15-11.
Nicklaus was the story of the second game, dominating the net on both offense and defense, getting several key blocks and hitting the ball so hard, so well and so often that LACC was forced in desparation to double block him, leaving wide open expanses of undefended court for Caltech's other hitters. Caltech quickly took that game 15-3.
Not to be intimidated or defeated easily, LACC fought back. Finally getting their own offense working consistently and taking advantage of another rough stretch in Caltech's play, they took control of the third game. Despite the substitution of outside hitters Mike Burl and Andreas Masuhr in an attempt to pull the beavers back together, they took the third game 15-10. This was only the second game lost this year by caltech in non-tournament play. Galvanized by this, Caltech came back once again finishing the match with a fast 15-5 victory.
Caltech's next home game is on Sunday the 8th of March against Pomona-Pitzer in Brown Gym at 3pm. Bring a friend, bring an enemy, bring a posse, or bring the next Jehovah's Witnesses that stop by your door, but be sure to come and catch the beaver fever while you support the team. Times and places for future matches as well as the scores for previous matches can be found on the Men's Club website at http://www.cco.caltech.edu/~vball/VB.home.html