And the Tritons hit it off at their first tournament of the year in Irvine, Calif. for SCCVL's Fall Classic to take on teams all across the country!                      

Our Gold team started off the early morning at Momentous against UC Riverside A and USC B teams, which are two teams that our program is familiar with throughout the past seasons. In these games, our Gold team was able to get a feel of the tournament and build better team chemistry, and went 2-0 in set scores against both UCR and USC for preliminary pool play. As for our Blue team, they met up against Azusa Pacific's B team as well as Arizona State's A team for preliminary pool play. Despite going through a rough patch with lineups, we were able to triumph against Azusa Pacific in a three-set thriller. Sadly, we fell against  Arizona State in two, but came out of that game with a stronger mindset and incredible insight to bring into our next tournament.                          

After this, our teams entered into a "power pool" round that would determine our bracket seeding. Our Gold team faced UCI A and Utah Valley A teams, which were both teams with high prospects for the season, and were able to come out on top against UCI in two sets, but unfortunately fell to Utah Valley in two very close sets (26-24, 25-22). As for our Blue team, they faced a familiar foe and a new prospect: Arizona State B and CSU Northridge B teams. Our Blue team was able to push Arizona State into a three-setter but fell in the third set. Shortly after, they came out triumphant against CSU Northridge in a clean two-set match (25-19, 25-21).                                

With this preliminary pool play and seeding finished, our Gold and Blue teams settled into their respective brackets: Gold and Bronze. Due to the single elimination nature of the bracket, it was all or nothing for our Blue and Gold teams. Our Gold team fell in the first round of bracket play, falling to UArizona's A team in three sets (25-11, 16-25, 15-8) after some back and forth in serve receive. Unfortunately, our Blue team met the same fate against our cross-town rivals SDSU B in the first round of Bronze bracket play in another three-setter (25-18, 23-25, 15-8).                                

Our teams did incredibly well at this first tournament and have a lot to bring home to practice to polish, hone, and master. Gold finished with a record of 4-1 and 5th overall, while Blue finished with a record of 2-3 and 15th overall. Go Tritons and until next time! #GoTritons