Volleyball players have a choice other than Division 1 and intramural volleyball: club volleyball.
“For a lot of people that I knew, it was always kind of an idea to have a sort of a club sport for guys’ and girls’ volleyball,” Baumgartner said.
Creighton’s club volleyball team was started in 2008 by Arts & Sciences senior Andrew Baumgartner, Arts & Sciences junior Taylor Akiyama and second-year Pharmacy student Blissa Tanaka.
They weren’t the first people to have the desire to start a club team, but they were the first who were able to go through with it.
“I know some people have tried in the past and it didn’t work or something came up, so luckily last year the climate was right and we were able to form a club,” Baumgartner said.
The club team is the only highly-competitive option for men who want to play volleyball during their years at Creighton.
“Creighton does not have its own men’s team,” Akiyama said in an e-mail interview. “I really needed that outlet and club volleyball was that outlet. Intramurals are fun and great time with friends; however, it does not provide that high level competition that I’ve grown up with.”
For women, there is the Division 1 volleyball option available, but not everyone has the opportunity to be a part of the varsity team.
“Many of us had to sacrifice our athletic endeavors in order to succeed academically and missed playing organized volleyball,” Tanaka said.
The club has more than 40 members who vie for spots on the two traveling teams, which are made up of 12-14 men and 14 women. However, the possibilities are growing.
“During tryouts we looked at the possibility of having multiple teams, but we do not have the resources to do so, although we may be looking into it for the future,” Tanaka said.
The men’s team recently took part in a tournament in St. Louis that was hosted by St. Louis University. Fourteen teams competed in the tournament, including SLU, Southern Illinois University, Washington University in St. Louis and Hannibal LaGrange College.
Creighton won the tournament, beating SLU for the championship.
“It took like 10-and-a-half hours to win the whole thing,” Baumgartner said.
Next semester, the club has at least two more tournaments before they go to the National Intramural-Recreational Sports Association national tournament. In order to qualify for the national tournament, the teams must compete in at least two tournaments with other teams registered with NIRSA after Jan. 1st.
Last year’s national championship took place in Kansas City, Mo. over Easter weekend. The women’s team made the trip to Kansas City with Akiyama accompanying them.
“I took the women’s team to last year’s national championships and the talent that shows up from all across the nation is amazing,” he said. “While I was there helping coach the women, I was able to catch some games of the multiple divisions of men’s teams and they looked really good.”