Upset City
One of the goals for the UCSD-Blue team this year is to upset some teams. The team is constantly under ranked and this year, they decided to do something about it. The tritons came out on Saturday morning ready to kick butt. Nationals rankings had come out the week before and the team was ranked 9th and 1st ranked UCSB was in the pool. The odds were already stacked against them, because the team only had one healthy middle. Val stepped up and played middle for the first two games against SFSU and USC-B which the tritons crushed easily with "Big Bri" playing outside. Next, the team faced #1 UCSB. Ryley felt up to playing, so the rotations went back to normal. In a hard fought battle, the Tritons prevailed over the highl ranked Gauchos with the help of Alayah Crump who helped lay down the law at the net. She shut down hitter after hitter and transitioned for multiple 10-foot line kills. Lastly, the tritons played crosstown rivals SDSU and showed them who really was the dominant team in San Diego. They ended day 1 4-0, 8-0 in sets, handing UCSB their first loss of the season. The next day found the blue team in gold power pools where the winners would face off for first in the tournament. The teams, Cal Poly - B and USC - A were tough, but no match for the teamwork of the Tritons. The Tritons set up to face Cal Poly - A in the finals. After a long two days, the match came down to a tight third set, but UCSD fell to the Mustangs, claiming 2nd in the tournament. The Tritons definitely upset many teams this weekend after losing all their games in the previous tournament.
The tournament was not so successful for the Gold team who went 0-4 on day 1. They were able to take USC - A to 3 sets, but were unable to come out with any match victories. They played in the bronze bracket on day 2 and played tough, but close games. They were able to come out with one win against UCSB-B. They proved they were not a team to be taken lightly in this primarily A-team tournament, grinding for every point.