JAMESTOWN — The University of Jamestown men’s volleyball team will go to the NAIA Men’s Volleyball Championships with one thing on their minds — winning it all.
The No. 8-seed Jimmies open their tournament at 7 p.m. Wednesday, May 1, when they take on No. 9-seed Mount Mercy in Cedar Rapids, Iowa.
One challenge that the Mustangs could present to the Jimmies is having 25 players who are at least 6 feet tall, while the Jimmies have 19. In order to deal with their height, Jimmies head coach Travers Cox said his team has to increase the speed of the match.
“We’re gonna try to run the ball a little faster, be a little quicker in the middle, be a little quicker in the pins and see if that can help us get one-on-one combinations a little more,” Travers Cox said. “Then try and attack, in serve game, see if we can get them out of system a little bit more.”
The Mustangs got a five-set win over the Jimmies on March 8, 2023. Jimmies senior Caylor Cox said he expects this match to be significantly different from their previous one.
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“I think it’ll be a lot more pin heavy,” Caylor Cox said. “That’s what we’ve been seeing on film is that they’re a lot more pin heavy. So they rely on their outside (Akeel Oxley) a lot so the goal will be to try to slow that guy down as much as possible and maybe make them try to rely on the middles to beat us a little bit more because if that’s the case if we serve tough and serve well we should be pretty successful.”
Despite being a lower seed than they might’ve expected, the Jimmies said they are taking it in stride. Caylor Cox said he and his teammates are using the eighth seed as motivation heading into the tournament.
“It is what it is,” Caylor Cox said. “It’s a tough position. It’s about the same place we’ve been every year. We get put in that tough situation with the number one (NO. 1>>>) seed every year. It is what it is. It just gives us a chance to prove something.”
Travers Cox said his expectations for the tournament are for his team to stay healthy and play well.
The Jimmies head into the tournament riding a 13-game winning streak, which is good for a tie for second longest in the NAIA, alongside The Master’s University (California).
The Jimmies finish their pool play schedule at 7 p.m. on Thursday, May 2, against the top overall seed in the tournament, The Master’s.
This season, the Jimmies have faced two teams that made the national tournament, Ottawa University (Arizona) and Saint Xavier (Illinois). The Jimmies went 1-1 in those matches, beating Ottawa in five sets and getting swept by Saint Xavier. Travers said that instead of putting teams on his schedule that are in the tournament, his team went to Poland.
“I’d like to get more matches in the Heartland (Collegiate Athletic Conference) or the GSAC (Golden State Athletic Conference) or the Cal Pac (California Pacific Conference),” Travers Cox said. “I’d like to get more matches there but it’s tough for us, we do a lot of traveling already that’s seven to 11 hours away. We had to do that three times already. … But we did something different this year, we went to Poland. So we went to Poland instead and the guys had a great time in Poland.”
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This year, Caylor has 135 kills, 112 assists, 24 service aces and 162 digs. In order to help his team go on a run, Caylor said he has to play almost perfect volleyball.
“I expect to come in the gym, into the Newman and give it my all before going out because this will be my last week of practice here in the Newman," Caylor said. "This’ll be one last hurrah to end the time here. So I think myself as well as many of the other guys are thinking a similar thing, go out with a bang this last week or so and make it the best it can be.”
Caylor said it would mean a lot to finish his career with a national championship but understands that he and his teammates will have to work hard to accomplish that goal.
“I think it’d be something special and incredible,” Caylor said.
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