The men's volleyball club played strong en route to a fourth-place finish at the Cougar Invitational despite being short-handed because of absent players.

The men finished fourth of 14 teams at the tournament hosted by Southern Illinois University at Edwardsville on Feb. 15.

"I think we played pretty well the whole day," junior Brandon Bennett said. "I wish we could have gone farther."

Sophomore Casey Hollensteiner said the team didn't anticipate winning the tournament.

"We went in thinking it would be tough to come out as champs, but we did well," Hollensteiner said.

The team beat Missouri Baptist College (St. Louis) in the first round of pool play 25-23, 25-9 and 15-3.

The team played Southern Illinois University at Carbondale in the second round and won 25-10, 25-21 and 15-8. The team suffered its only loss of the day against Southwest Missouri State University (Springfield), 22-25 and 17-25.

"We were missing a couple of guys," said Greg Guckes, coach and club president. "SMS was better than the two pool teams we played."

Guckes said he thinks the games against SMSU could have gone either way if some bounces had gone the team's way. He said the team tried a new formation and spent some time getting used to it.

Hollensteiner said SMSU is a good team that has some talented players from some of St. Louis' men's high school volleyball programs.

Because of the absence, Bennett and Hollensteiner, who both usually play middle hitter, had to move to the back row for one of the games. Although they said they are not used to playing that position, they both said they thought they played well in the back row. Hollensteiner, however, said he thinks it was more luck than anything. He said that if he had had to play back there for too long, he wouldn't have played that well.

"I enjoyed it a lot," Hollensteiner said. "It was good to try something new."

Guckes said the team is hoping the momentum from the strong showing it had at the Cougar Invitational will follow them to Iowa for the Hawkeye Classic on March 8 and 9 at the University of Iowa (Iowa City).

Guckes said the tournament should be a good test because there will be about 25 teams there, including teams from the Big 12 and the Big 10. He said the team members are hoping for a top 10 finish at the tournament.

"We are going to be the smallest school there," Guckes said. "Top 10 out of 25 would be a good finish."

Hollensteiner said the tournament will show the team how well it ranks in the nation.

Bennett said the tournament will be divided into three divisions, and the team members are hoping to win the second division.

"There are several really good teams," Bennett said. "Most are Division I, so they have bigger student populations to choose from."

Hollensteiner said the team is planning on playing in a tournament at Bradley University (Peoria, Ill.) on March 29. The team also hopes to host another tournament at Truman before playing in the National Tournament in Columbus, Ohio, on April 10 to 12.

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