Our
past
seasons have all seen improvement. Starting in 1996, the club
joined the Midwest Intercollegiate Volleyball Association (MIVA)
Division-II league. Although the competition was good, the teams
in the conference are pretty spread out. Travel expenses forced
the team to join the Midwest Collegiate Volleyball Association (MCVA)
the following season in 1997. The trade off in competition gave
the team schools that were close to home.
In our first
season in this
conference,1997-1998, the team finished 12-2 in conference and 18-6
overall. We didn't get to play any tough tournaments that season,
only one division I tournament at Northern Illinois. The team
finished 5th at the conference finals, losing to Illinois State.
The team faced a couple of key injuries at the end of the 97-98 season,
losing 3 starters in one day. The team opted not to go to the
national championships because of injuries and it's financial
situation. Although we beat a couple of nationally ranked D-2
teams, UIC never broke the top 25 in national rankings.
In 1998-1999, with one good
season under our belt and returning 7 starters from the previous
season, the club was determined to have a good showing. Starting
the season with a Division 1 tournament at Northern Illinois was a
great warm-up. Although we only played 3 matches, and finished with 2
losses and a tie, we had a point differential of only 13. The
Michigan State tournament seemed easy as the team coasted to a 3rd
place finish out of 28 teams in our division. This gave us confidence,
and a national ranking of 13th. The MCVA season was unproductive
as we only played 8 matches, and finished 6-2. Indiana University
taught us to play to win, not to play scared of losing. We
finished the tournament in disappointing fashion, and lost our 8th
place in the national rankings. We attended the National
Championship tournament held at the University of Maryland in April. We
entered with a 25th place national rank, and left with the same,
finishing 25th out of 64 teams. Injuries once again plagued the
squad.
Well the regular season for 1999-2000 wasn't that exciting, but the
national championships held in Reno were a blast. We entered the
tournament with a ranking of 31 out of 64, and played the tournament
only losing to 2 teams, Eckard and Biola Universities...the eventual
champions and runner-up for division 2. We lost to Biola in the
playoffs for a tie 9th place finish out of 64 teams, not too bad, and
nobody was injured this time.
The 2000-2001 season
started
out with a tournament at the University of Illinois and the usual
tournament at Michigan State. Neither proved to be a great start
for the season as players were injured at both tournaments. With
the regular season just around the corner, things appeared to get
brighter for the team. Ranked 7th nationally in the pre-season
got our hopes high. We started out in great fashion, but soon did
lousy in a tournament, which turned us back to be ranked 14th
nationally. The conference games went by in a breeze, yet another
poor finish at a tournament erased us from the nationally ranked
scene. The regular season ended on a down note as the team
lost 4 games going into the MCVA Conference Tournament. Here, we
decided to get our act together before nationals and played phenomenal
volleyball to win the conference tournament. The nationals in
Kansas City were, and it appeared to be a disappointment at first
because we applied late for MDII and went into the MDIII bracket.
Nonetheless, we made it worth our while and had a great 1st day with a
4-0 record. The next morning we were stunned to lose 2 straight
games and be put into the silver bracket. The final day was a bit
different as we again put on our game faces and ran away as the winners
of the silver bracket, 9th out of some 24 teams.
The 2001-2002 year was faced with losing 3 starters
and our libero. We entered tryouts with a questionable
appearance; however, with a practically brand new team, we bonded
together as a young team willing to play hard. The year started
out at the U of I tournament where we were just not connecting with
each other. The Michigan State tournament ended up better as we
lost in the semi-finals of the 20 some team DII bracket. The
spring semester looked to be another challenge to the team in our
ongoing hunger to defend our MCVA championship. We played hard to
become ranked 25th by the end of the season. At the MCVA
conference tournament we ended up losing in the semi-finals and ended
up 3rd. Nationals in Dallas proved to be a very disappointing
experience as well. With key injuries and players not being able
to attend, we struggled to stay alive and came out with a vow to do way
better in 2003.
The 2002-2003 started off with a bang. With
experience under our belts and basically the same team as the past
year, we finished 2nd in the silver bracket at the U of I tournament,
and won the silver bracket at the Michigan State tournament with a
finish of 5th out of 18. We got 3rd at the Loyola
tournament and have started off our conference schedule with a
dominating 3-0 start, finishing 14-3. Still with a young team, we
have much to
prove and show others that we can compete. We put together a
solid performance at Nationals, placing 21st in the nation in Division
II. We look forward to our best season yet.
The
2003-2004 was a new start for UIC. The team began primarily
competing at the Division I level instead of Division II. The
team finished 3rd out of 16 at the NIU tournament, 18th / 36 at
Michigan State. The team also had 3rd place finishes at the UIC
Invite and MCVA Conference tounrnament. Not content to stop
there, the team finished 3rd/24 teams at the Iowa Spring Tournament,
and went 6-3 at Nationals to finish 3rd out of 36 teams in Division
I-AA. This is the best finish so far for a team at UIC.
There is still a lot of room for improvement but a very repsectable
season overall.