At the beginning of the year, the men’s volleyball team was projected to finish last in the conference but proved everyone wrong. On Wednesday, April 10, the team made it to the conference tournament semifinals but finished off their impressive season by falling to Carthage College in the conference semifinals. The season was full of success, especially for senior Max Sellers, who was named to the ​​2024 AVCA Division III All-Region teams and was named second-team All-American. 

“It was overwhelming,” Sellers said. “I wasn’t fully expecting it, because it is a very hard award to get. I knew that it was gonna be tough because our region is filled with really great players. But I’m really happy about it because I think our team deserves to have that recognition as a team as well. After all, I believe my team helped me so much throughout the season that got me to this point.”

Sellers, who was the first in program history to achieve this recognition, was also named CCIW defensive player of the team and earned first-team all-conference honors. 

“It was really surprising,” Sellers said. “Our conferences are filled with really great players. Defensively, it’s usually given to blockers… We’re usually ranked four through six in our conference, but this year, we got third. So, that helped a lot in their decision-making. I was really happy about that.”

Throughout the season the team showed how well they compete against the rest, and through it all the players saw the season as a success.

“The season was proof that we can compete alongside the best teams around the country,” sophomore Jordan Schneckloth said. “It definitely was a successful season as it proved what we trained and played for wasn’t for nothing.” 

Many factors contributed to the success of the team, one of which was how the players challenged themselves through it all.

“One thing that led to the success of the team was the mindset of everyone,” Schneckloth said. “Challenging everyone to be at their best regardless of whether it was during practice, watching film, or mid-game really helped us out.”

Another major benefit the team had was the First-Year, who took charge during the year and was very helpful when there were injuries. 

“We had a freshman middle, Ty Heater,” Sellers said. “He’s a really good athlete, he struggled a little bit, but I knew he could work harder, and then by the end of the season, he was in the top 10 in a lot of stats in our conference. He learned a lot throughout the season that way.” 

First-year Colin Schaefer was another player on the team that Sellers recognized for his hard work and for learning a lot during the season. 

“Schaefer already had great confidence, but he learned to build that up more,” Sellers said. “He helped us out through a lot of really tough scenarios because setting is a huge part of the sport and the fact that he could fill in, especially when our other setter got injured in the middle of the year like he took charge and he did a really good job with it.” 

With the season over, the team can now look back on the improvements made and carry out what they learned this year into the next. 

“The largest improvement I saw throughout the season was the mindset of the players, not caring about wins or losses, but about succeeding one point at a time throughout the matches,” junior Zach Moreano said.