The Butler A team provided a solid performance until they ultimately fell in the championship match to Ball State. They finished with an overall record of 9-4 . Also, the Butler B team had a very strong showing as they finished 4th with a record of 3-5. Overall, it was a very good day of volleyball for the Dawgs. Up next, the Dawgs will be traveling to Bradley on November 2nd to participate in the Bradley University Fall Invitational. This is yet another step towards Kansas City.

Welcome back, the Dawgs are excited to open the 2019-2020 season with our 3rd annual fall invitational. This year the Dawgs play host teams from around the area including Ball State and Indiana State. The tournament will take place October 12th in the HRC on both courts 1 and 2 starting at 9:00 a.m. We would love to see support from the BU community all day!!! The dawgs volleyball is restocking for the upcoming campaign; the road to Kansas City starts now!

Welcome back Bulldogs!!! With classes starting back up that means volleyball season is not too far behind. This year we have a lot of spots to fill with a large group of graduating players from the 2018-2019 season. We will miss the likes of graduating seniors and fifth years Robert Smith, John Lacheta, Johnathan Phoun, Randall Kelch, and former president Sam Burton (May he forever reign over the North). We do however return honorable mention all-conference star outside Johnny McDonald. New officers are eager to get back out on the court and cannot wait for tryouts this upcoming week. With that being said tryouts were originally scheduled for September 2nd and 4th. Due to slight oversight Monday, September 2nd is Labor Day and we are going to cancel that tryout and push the tryout to the following week. New schedule for tryouts will be:

Wednesday, September 4th @ 7:30 P.M. HRC Court 1

Monday, September 9th @ 7:30 P.M. HRC Court 1

We look forward to seeing all the players come and play!!

It’s time, the event that the whole season has been geared towards has finally arrived! The team leaves for Denver this afternoon to embark on a 3 day quest to compete for the D2 national championship. Led by a core of seniors and a couple first years the team is ready for the challenge ahead. Junior outside hitter Johnny McDonald picked up an MWPVC All-Conference award last week, and is firing on all cylinders (right into the block) heading into Denver. The dawgs will tweet the schedule of play from our twitter page and instagram daily, as well as provide score updates and other random facts. We will also be taking over the Butler Club Sports Instagram along with the girls team all weekend so keep your eyes open for that.

Finally the team would like to take a moment to thank and appreciate all those who donated to us in order to provide us with this amazing opportunity. The following contributors listed in alphabetical order can not be thanked enough for their contributions and support of the Butler Men’s Volleyball team! From the whole team thank you!

Team Sponsors:

The Brown Family

The Burton Family

The O’Hern Family

Ms. Karen Scherer

Mr. Spencer Thomason

Lastly be sure to follow all of our socials (usernames presented below)

Twitter: @ButlerMVB

Instagram: @bumensclubvb

We are ready and excited to get going in Denver. Heard theres a big real estate sale going on, and we’re going for some beachfront property!

Go Dawgs!

Now the excitement of the Holiday season is over its time to settle down and get ready for a new season of volleyball. With that being said, it is now the season for award shows. So, before we move onto the more competitive part of our season Butler Volleyball would like to reflect on the fall season and hand out some awards. Now these awards carry now prize value or trophy, but more the respect and honor to be engraved on this blog forever. So, it is now our great pleasure to present to you the 2018 fall season awards:

We start with the practice player of the year. This award honors the player that always shows up to every practice and gives 110%. Practice would not be complete without seeing this guy playing hard and laying it all on the court. Congratulations to the 2018 practice player of the year Michael Chinn!

We travel a lot, driving four to five hours on average to tournaments and then four to five hours back. With this much time in a car you learn a lot about ones driving habits and skills… or in this case lack thereof. It is great honor that we present the 2018 driver of the year award to Johnny McDonald, please please learn to drive better for this season.

We stay at a lot of budget hotels and they’re always pretty boring and in the middle of the nowhere. We can always count on one person to make sure the morale in the hotel stays high. Making sure the team is together and not bored in the middle of nowhere. So, the Red Roof traveler of the year award goes to Trevor Tokarek

When Jakob Jozwiakowski graduated last year, we knew we would not only lose his setting skills but also his ability to trash talk and get in the other team’s head. Luckily this year we have recruited a freshman that loves to play the mental game with the other team. Alex Reinke is this year’s Trash talker of the year award winner, congratulations!

Now most of those awards were well deserved but had a jovial attitude to them, it’s time for the real team awards. Below you will find the winners of the Defensive and offensive player of the year awards, the team spirit award, the mental attitude award winner, and finally this seasons MVP.

Team spirit award is someone that always goes the extra mile to make sure time morale is at an all-time high. Whether that be during practice or during games this player is always in a happy and jovial mood. The fall season team spirit award goes to Jacob Gulley.

Butler Blue III is someone that always keeps everyone at Butler happy and focused. The face of the university, and face for what the Butler way is. That is why it is an honor to name our mental attitude award after him. There is a player this season that has showed up to every practice with a smile on his face ready to do anything form setup the nets to tear them down. Always making sure he has a good time during volleyball practice and is ready to play. Without further introduction Matthew O’Hern or Matty Ice is our mental attitude award winner.

And lastly the three awards that need no introduction or explanation:

Jared Curcio Defensive Player of the Season: Jonathon Phoun

Offensive Player of the Season: Jackson Nagle

Team MVP: Robert Smith

It was a great fall season but the dawgs are hungry and ready to kick off the spring season and start the road to nationals. See you next week!

#GoDawgs #StillHere

After a promising start to the 2018-2019 season, and a long and restful Winter break the VolleyDawgs will return to the court January 14th for practice. The push towards the national tournament in Denver will begin on January 26th as the Dawgs host their 2nd annual Bulldog Classic at the Butler HRC. They will then begin a Grind of 3 tournaments in 4 weeks. On February 9th Butler will head back to Peoria, Illinois infamously known as PeoVegas. They will play in the Midwest Plains Volleyball Conference North Regional tournament at Bradley University. After that on February 16th and 17th they will head up to La Crosse, Wisconsin for the Midwest D2 Invitational, a tournament that pits the top teams in Division 2 against each other. This tournament will be a great chance to play against some of the top teams we will see at Nationals. The B team will go Southern-Illinois Edwardsville the same weekend for an exciting 16 team tournament. The dawgs will then stay home and practice up until April 17th through the 20th where they will finally make the voyage to Denver, Colorado for the NCVF National Tournament.

The whole spring semester schedule will be geared towards bringing home a championship in April. From everyone at Butler Mens Volleyball we wish you and yours a Happy New Year and may you have a healthy and successful 2019!

As always Go Dawgs!

Winter is Coming…

#UnloadtheQuiver

The Dawgs Fall season is coming to a close, the Dawgs finish the fall season with a 6-1-1 record. The Dawgs will have a ugly sweater and bring a friend to practice night on December 3rd from 730-930 on HRC Court 1. Come celebrate the end of the semester and the Holiday season with the Butler Mens Volleyball team. The Dawgs will start next semester with a second round of tryouts for anyone wanting to join the team for the Spring semester and then will only have a couple of weeks before hosting a tournament on January 26th in the HRC. Below are the results from out last tournament at Bradley University in PeoVegas, Illinois. Thanks for everyones support and help this semester. See you all next semester!

-Western Illinois- Team rallied from a dropped first set to tie the game and save the point differential

-Bradley Alumni- Thanks to a strong offensive attack the team pounded the Alumni team in the first set but unfortunately could not finish the deal

-Washington Univeristy-St. Louis- Dawgs needed to score alot of points in order to try and win the pool and they were able to achieve this but still fell to second in the pool despite their 2-0-1 and record

-Illinois State A- Dawgs made it to the gold bracket and faced a team that should of been faced in the championship and lose to the eventual champions and finished 5th overall.

Happy Holidays

Winter is Coming

#UnloadTheQuiver

In only the first tournament of the year for the 2018-2019 Butler Bulldogs Mens Volleyball team expectations were already high. Coming off a season where the Dawgs were crowned silver bracket champions in only their first trip to nationals, all eyes were on what the squad could achieve this year. With an influx of fresh new faces mixed with a solid backbone of experience and chemistry the Dawgs cruised through their first tournament, never dropping a set. The Butler A team led by freshman setter Justin Bridges, Senior opposite Jackson Nagle, and fifth year libero Robert Smith seemed to be operating in mid-season form as the team went on to be crowned tournament champions. The Butler B team led by Freshman outside Alex Reinke, Sophomore Outside Brandon Gansell, and freshman setter Billy Psarros put up tremendous fights against all teams and finished fourth.

The dawgs would like to thank all the fans and teams for traveling to beautiful Butler University for this inaugural tournament. Also a huge shoutout goes to Bailey squared (Bailey Finocchio and Bailey Berelsman) from the Butler Club Sports department for helping our tournament run smoothly. The dawgs will be back in action November 3rd and 4th as they travel to Peoria, Illinois for a tournament at Bradley University. Match highlights for the Halloween showcase are featured below, and scores can be found on the schedule page.

Match Recaps:

Indiana State- Dawgs started off hot, not succumbing to previous problems in choking away the first match. Big play from Jackson Nagle and Johnny McDonald made sure the Dawgs beat their rivals ISU.
Southern Illinois-Edwardsville- Butler became fighters in the second set battling back from some tough offense from SIU-E thanks to the stellar passing of Robert Smith. With some additional great serving from Lukas Harkins the Dawgs eventually outlasted the Cougars and picking up the #1 seed for tournament play
Indiana State- ISU came back powerful and on a winning streak to get another shot at the Dawgs. It just wasn’t enough for them as Butler wold not be defeated today. Strong play out of setters Justin Fields and Trevor Tokarek made sure the Sycamores were sent packing back to Terre Haute
Ferris State- After going to three sets in their semi-final game the Ferris State Bulldogs came into this game exhausted and defeated. All it took was a few kills from Sam squared Sam Burton and Sam Smith, and some big blocks from John Lacheta in the middle to wear the Ferris State squad out. The fake Bulldogs were eventually sent packing back to Michigan in straight sets. Dawgs win their first tournament of the year without dropping a set.

Go Dawgs! #UnloadTheQuiver

INDIANAPOLIS – The Men’s Volleyball Club at Butler University will be hosting a Halloween Showcase on Oct. 20 with games running from 9:00 a.m. – 4:00 p.m. at the HRC. Admission is free.

This Halloween showcase will be an eight-team tournament with two pools of four teams. Each team will play all the other teams in their respective pool and then play the other brackets resulting from the previous games.

Some of the competing teams in the tournament will include Ball State, Indiana State, Southern Illinois, Ferris State, and Butler’s own teams divided into teams A and B. The club is hoping to make the Halloween Showcase an annual event.

The Butler team is eager to play in their first tournament of the season. Club President Sam Burton says, “I’m excited for an opportunity to play at home in front of some friends and family against teams we don’t get to play too often. It will be a great warm-up and team bonding opportunity for our guys.” They are expecting to go to nationals again this year and win.

If anyone is interested in joining the club next season contact Sam Burton. Below is a tentative schedule for the season.

Oct. 20 Bulldog Halloween Showcase

Nov. 3-4 Bradley University Tournament

Nov. 10 Ball State Tournament

Dec. 3-4 Purdue Tournament

About Men’s Volleyball Club

Butler University’s Men’s Volleyball Club is a student-run organization playing in tournaments across the Midwest and committed to the promotion of men’s volleyball in local high schools. Members coach teams, host clinics and invite highschools to watch a game or practice. In the spring of 2018, they returned from Nationals in St. Louis having won the Division II silver bracket, finishing the season with a 32-16 record. This year’s team consists of 21 members with a board including President Sam Burton, Vice President Trevor Tokarek, Treasurer Lukas Harkins and Secretary Nate “Randall” Kelch.

Written by Caroline Elmer ’22

Nationals

The dawgs traveled to St. Louis to compete in the National Tournament April 12-14. The team finished 8-2 and won the Division II Silver Bracket. It was an unbelievable experience. The venue was nothing short of spectacular, the matches were intense, and  the atmosphere was electric. Here’s a brief recap of each match:

vs UW-Stout (W): 25-8, 25-21 – the dawgs started out the tournament with a strong performance against UW-Stout. A few long serving runs kept the dawgs in the lead throughout the entire match.

vs Bethel U (W): 25-15, 25-19 – the dawgs played another clean match and knocked off Bethel University pretty easily. The dawgs offense proved to be too much for Bethel to handle.

vs SUNY Brockport (L): 22-25, 25-22, 12-15 – the dawgs ended pool play 2-1 after a tough loss to SUNY Brockport. The dawgs rallied late in set 3 but Brockport’s middles were too much for the dawgs to handle in this match.

vs Colorado School of Mines (L): 25-22, 21-25, 13-15 – the dawgs drew a tough opponent in the challenge round. The score was close throughout all three sets but the Miners ultimately prevailed.

vs Northern Ohio (W): 25-12, 25-20 – the dawgs’ next match was against Northern Ohio. After a relatively easy first set, the dawgs had to rally from a 10-2 deficit in set 2. Jackson Nagle and Jakob Jozwiakowski put up a few big blocks to close out the match.

vs Bentley U (W): 25-20, 25-11 – the dawgs then played Bentley for a chance to compete in the silver bracket. After a slow start, the dawgs figured things out and played one of their best matches of the year. Nate Kelch, John Lacheta, and Sam Burton played middle during this match and put down a few kills. 

vs Stockton (W): 25-23, 25-14 – the dawgs then played Stockton to determine seeding for silver pool play. The match started out pretty close but the dawgs ultimately prevailed in set 1. Set 2 was controlled by the dawgs from start to finish. Brandon Gansell went on a few long serving runs that gave the dawgs a big lead from the start.

vs UMBC (W): 25-20, 25-23 – the dawgs knocked off UMBC in the silver quarterfinals in a close match. Rob Smith racked up a ton of digs and played one of his best matches of the year. Sam Smith also had a great game from the left pin.

vs SUNY Brockport (W): 18-25, 36-34, 16-14 – no, 36-34 is not a typo. That actually happened. The dawgs pulled off a stunner in the silver semifinals in a rematch against SUNY Brockport. The dawgs got off to a rough start and dropped the first set 18-25. At the beginning, set 2 wasn’t looking very good either but the dawgs fought back to push the match past 25. The dawgs then fought off 11 match points to take their first lead of the set at 35-34 and ultimately won the set 36-34. As the set kept going, more and more people circled around our court. By the time both teams reached 30, the area surrounding the court was completely filled with teams and fans from other schools. Some of the courts around us even stopped to see what was going on. After a long second set, the dawgs prevailed in set 3.

vs UM Duluth (W): 25-15, 25-23 – the dawgs knocked off UM Duluth in the silver championship to end the day 3-0 and the tournament 8-2. The team was exhausted after just playing an intense semifinal match. But, the team found a way to rally and win the last match of the year with a dominating performance.

Awards

Along with a plaque for winning the silver bracket, the dawgs brought home a few more awards. Jackson Nagle was named 2nd team All-Conference in the MWPVC after monster performances at the regional and crossover tournaments this semester. The team also won the “Outstanding Achievement” award through Butler’s HRC for all the things the team accomplished this year.

New Leadership

Congratulations to our members that will be taking over our leadership positions next year:

Sam Burton – President

Lukas Harkins – Treasurer

Trevor Tokarek – Vice President

Nate “Randall” Kelch – Secretary

Thank you seniors

Thank you to our 3 seniors (4 if you count Condon) for everything they’ve done over the past 4 years. 

Jakob Jozwiakowski might be the smartest kid at Butler and will be going to IU School of Medicine next year. He claims that Organic Chemistry is easy and having a test the next day is not a valid excuse to miss practice. While he claims to be a middle at heart and put on a tremendous showing at spring sports as an opposite, Jaws has been the team’s setter for the past three years. He runs the offense well and is easily the best blocker out of all the setters in the conference. He always knew what to say and was a great leader for our team. We’ll miss Jaws a lot next year but we know he’s moving on to bigger and better things.

Chris Coulter is also pretty smart. Next fall will be the first time in 4 years that he won’t be eating at Atherton Union as he’ll be attending Marquette’s Dental School in a few months. Chris was a huge asset for our team the past few years. He’s served as the team’s Vice President and helped out with a lot of behind the scenes work. His versatility on the court allowed us to use him at both pins and his defense was outstanding. While none of us can figure out his approach, Chris always found a way to get a good swing on every ball. We’ll miss Chris and wish him all the best in his bright future.

Rob Smith isn’t quite as smart but he’s still going to grad school. He’ll be completing Butler’s MPA program next year and he’s keeping us in the dark as to whether or not he’ll play again next year. Bob has been the team’s libero for the past 3.5 years (still salty about you going abroad last spring) and has been a big part of the team’s success. His serve receive and defense are excellent and he would probably be the greatest outside hitter this world has ever seen if he was 6′ 2” (he’s 5′ 7” with shoes on). Everyone believes he got snubbed from the All-Conference team and should probably be given an award just for putting up with me for so long. 

Final Remarks

The dawgs finished 32-16 and broke many of our club’s records along the way. Huge thank you goes out to all our players for sticking with it all year, our parents for all the tournaments (Nate Kelch’s mom has been to more tournaments this year than Nate himself), and the HRC staff for all their help along the way. We’re looking forward to starting another great season in the fall! Be sure to check our social media accounts for updates about the 2018-2019 season!

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