Men’s volleyball begins conference play

Jimmy McCumber Guest Writer

The Vassar men’s volleyball team has struggled at the start of their season, but both players and coaches have high hopes for the remainder of the year and playoffs. The team, led by captains Craig Lutterbein ’06, Matt Bninski ’06, and Kyle Giunta ’08, is coming off of a 5-16 for the 2004-2005 season. The team is young, with seven of their 14 players being freshmen.
Despite a 0-4 start, Vassar got their first win of the season this past weekend with a 3-0 sweep at Endicott College. The team and their coaches are not dwelling on their slow start.
“Getting everyone to mix has been a challenge, especially with seven freshmen,” said Assistant Coach Antonia Sweet. “But we’re all about the process, and the wins will come.”

A major reason for the team’s slow start has been its youth. “It’s hard to say we are rebuilding because we have a lot of talent on this team, but we are very, very young,” said Head Coach Jonathan Penn. “We have three or four freshmen seeing significant playing time. It’s very hard to anticipate how quickly the freshmen will adjust and how we’ll mesh as a team.”

Despite the team’s youth, both the players and coaches are excited to have the new class of players and optimistic about their effect on the team.
“All the freshmen have good attitudes,” said Lutterbein. “There’s a lot of potential there.”

Penn felt the same way. “It’s been really great having this many freshmen,” he said. “Getting seven new faces has really shaken us up and its been good for us as a team.”

Although Penn mentioned a few key players on Vassar’s squad, including Bninski, he was reluctant to credit any individual player for the team’s success.

“It’s difficult to single out players,” said Penn. “We really push a team concept here. Volleyball as a sport doesn’t lend itself to individual performances anyway.”

The team now plays their games in the newly renovated Kenyon Hall, which contains a volleyball-specific court. Both coaches raved about the new practice and game space.
“Having a volleyball-specific, state-of-the-art gym is not only extremely rare, it provides endless opportunities,” said Penn. “It allows us to practice whenever we want, so we can take our players’ schedules into account. Other teams also benefit as well, as Walker is less crowded now.”

The men’s volleyball team enjoys the advantage of making it to post-season play regardless of their conference record. Vassar plays in the Eastern Intercollegiate Volleyball Association (EIVA), which contains four Division III teams. Only one of these four teams plays against Vassar in the Hay Division. In the playoffs, these four teams will compete for a chance to move on to the national championship.
Lutterbein is confident in his team’s chances at the end of the season. “To advance, we only need to win two games,” said Lutterbein. “Our potential at the end of the season compared to now is greater than any other team in the league.”

Because of this unusual league set-up, Vassar isn’t worrying about early losses to higher division opponents. “The emphasis for us is on our Division III opponents,” said Penn.
The other three EIVA Division III teams are NYU, Springfield, and Juniata. Vassar has already lost to NYU and Springfield, but gets another shot at each team later this month before the playoffs start.
“NYU and Springfield are long-standing rivalries,” said Penn, pointing out that New Paltz and Endicott have become the team’s other big rivals.

Penn is now in his tenth season as both men’s and women’s volleyball coach at Vassar. Sweet is in her eighth season as assistant coach for both teams, the longest stretch any current Vassar coaching tandem has enjoyed.

“[Penn] has been here ten years, I’ve been here eight, and the program has really come 360 degrees in that time,” said Sweet. “We feed off what we get from the student-athletes, and work to fit the program to the athletes. We have a big, strong tradition with the volleyball teams here at Vassar, and it’s nice to see the guys buy into that.”

With their new playing surface to enjoy, and a still developing team, Vassar is looking to March 31, the date of the EIVA championships, where they will compete with NYU, Springfield and Juniata for a spot in the Molten Championship, which is Division III volleyball’s version of a national championship.