3/23/24 - West Region Challenge
This was the last tournament in the triple crown series that SCCVL runs. It was important for both teams to make one last impression on the league. The A team came in as the 1 seed within their pool. They managed to beat UC Davis B and San Marcos handedly. However, they went against a strong U Colorado A team that managed to overtake them in the ranking. This loss resulted in UCSD A finishing second in the pool.
The B team came in as the second seed within their pool. Similar to the A team, they won both of their first matches against USC B and Fresno by a large margin. The issue came when they went against the 1 seed within their pool UVU A. UVU was a solid team, but the B team battled hard and took them to 3 sets. Unfortunately, it wasn't enough and UVU came out with the win, but it was a great sign for the UCSD B team that they could compete against some of the best A teams the league had to offer. This concluded the first day with both the A team and the B team going 2-1 in their respective pools.
Now on the second day, pools were readjusted to have the best teams go on to play in the gold bracket. This was what both teams were fighting for. The UCSD A team fought against two ASU teams (A and B team). They managed to get 2 wins within their bracket (both going to 3 sets) and move onto the gold bracket. The B team fought hard in their pool and went 1-1. Luckily, they beat Boise in a very lose match and this also allowed them to move onto the gold bracket. By coincidence, the next game to play would be UCSD A vs UCSD B. All the players knew that this match would be quite the battle. The game went three sets and it seemed like every point contained a rally of some sort. No player wanted to give the other team any edge. The A team barely managed to squeeze out the win in the 3rd set 16>14. It was truly a great game, and unfortunately this would mean the tournament was over for the UCSD B team. The A team moved on to the semi finals where they played a powerhouse Cal Poly A team. This would prove quite challenging as the UCSD A team lost in straight sets. Cal Poly eventually went on to dominate and win the whole tournament unsurprisingly. The UCSD A team tied for 3rd place for the 3rd time this SCCVL season. The B team also made quite a run and were one of the few B teams who managed to finish within the gold bracket, which was a great accomplishment. This was a great way to end the tournament series that SCCVL had put on and both teams performed very competitively.