What Happens in Vegas, Stays in the Group Chat Forever
The gentlemen of UC Slam Diego kicked off their Spring Break in Sin City for the annual Las Vegas Open. Each year, this is the final tournament before Nationals and teams from across the nation travel to compete. Or for an excuse to go to Vegas. No one is quite sure.
The first day of play consisted of a 4-team pool with UC Slam Diego at the top, U of A seeded 2nd, CSU Fullerton in 3rd, and bringing up the rear, Cal Poly’s B Team. Due to Nic “Rug Burn on his Eyes” Maroun, Mahdi “Butt-Touch Pickpocketed” Younis, and Tim “Took the Walk Instead of Striking Out” Green being late to the warmup for the Tritons’ first match, UC Slam Diego made them watch from the bench as the remaining 6 players had a blast playing out of position and slamming against CSU Fullerton. Notably, Joe “Let’s Go” Guarnes and Jon “Hot Twin” Maroun got to slam at the net instead of playing their communist positions of libero and setter. Jeff “My Tongue Just Feels Weird” Meng and Chris “Slide into Her DMs” Shaffer played in their normal positions, but still seemed to enjoy themselves. Presidents and Race-Winners Chris “Reverse Katy Perry” Griebenow and Jordan “Black Jordan Strikes Again” King got to switch off at middle and opposite for the two games of that match.
The second match was against Cal Poly’s B Team. This time, Tim “Bought the Noise” Green slammed as an outside with Nic “Literally Blood-Red Eyes” Maroun. Everyone else took up normal positions, except for Chris “Someone Help Me Get My Jersey Off” Griebenow, who donned his shmedium white jersey to play libero, giving Joe “I Walked over an Hour to Get Here” Guarnes some much-needed rest. The Tritons won this match easily as well, having more fun than anyone else in the tournament while doing so.
The final match of the day was against U of A. Slam Diego lost to them, taking 2nd in the pool, which turned out to be excellent strategery since the Tritons got to start off their playoff bracket the next day with their favorite volleyball representation of America: Air Force. With innumerable wenches cheering the gentlemen of UC Slam Diego on, Air Force fell in 2 sets to the Tritons, allowing the stellar UC Slam Diego team to lose to the number one team in the nation in the quarter-finals, Cal Poly. We’ll get them when it counts. National’s baby!
