Club volleyball starts the season at U of M

The women’s club volleyball team will have its first tournament of the winter season on Saturday at the University of Michigan in the Great Lakes Invitational.

There will be 24 teams participating in Saturday’s tournament, including Big Ten teams Michigan, Michigan State and Ohio State.

“We took an entire month off because of Christmas break and we haven’t had that many practices since then,” Vice President Alyssa Ulrich said. “Our hopes are pretty high this season. We’ve got a lot of potential and a lot of girls that can work hard, and we’re looking forward to going to Nationals in April because we’ve got a good quality team.”

The team’s next tournament will be Feb. 2 at Michigan State and will determine its seed for April’s National Tournament in Dallas, Texas.

“The tournament at Michigan State is a seeding tournament,” Ulrich said. “How well you do there is how you get seeded in the National tournament, but everyone qualifies for it.”

The team currently does not have another tournament scheduled between the Michigan State tournament and the National Tournament, but Ulrich said it’s likely there will be a few more on the schedule. There’s a possibility a tournament could be held here in Mount Pleasant.

“We are looking for a couple more tournaments, however they’re never really set in stone,” Ulrich said. “We potentially may have our own home tournament sometime this semester, we’re not sure about that yet.”

A possible tournament at CMU will depend on how many teams show interest in the tournament and if a date can be set. The potential tournament would be held at the SAC.