Games 3-10-109 and 3-11-110: Women's Volleyball UConn Classic vs. Fairfield and Michigan State, Plus Two Undercard Games

What: UConn Women's Volleyball UConn Classic: Dartmouth vs. Michigan State, UConn vs. Fairfield, Fairfield vs. Dartmouth, UConn vs. Michigan State

Where: Gampel Pavilion

When: Saturday, September 1  - 10 AM, 12:30 PM, 5 PM, 7:30 PM

Result: MSU 3 DAR 0, UC 3 FAIR 0, FAIR 3 DAR 0, MSU 3, UC 0. Overall, Michigan State goes 2-0 for the day, UConn and Fairfield go 1-1, and Dartmouth goes 0-2.

UConn and Fairfield face
eachother. Yes, they are going
white-on-white. Confusing

Doubleheaders are always fun, but what about double doubleheaders? That must be twice the fun, right? Right. I got to Gampel around 9:30 AM to watch the first matchup of the day, and third of the tournament (I missed Day 1 because I was at men's soccer). Michigan State beat Dartmouth 3 games to none. It was an interesting matchup, but not particularly close. Michigan State won, as they were expected to do.

Then came the first main match, involving the Huskies, as they took on the Fairfield Stags. You can see in the photo on the left that the two teams went white-on-white, which was very confusing.

We won the first set rather easily. The last two took some trouble, but we won them too. I must say the marketing people have done a great job at attracting students and other fans since I was last there two years ago. There was a good total - officially 156 for the first game, but I thought we had more. For the second game, we nearly doubled that with 312 fans.

But the second part of the day didn't start until 5:00 and the first game let out around 2:00. I walked across the street to the Student Union for lunch, then watched some football in the lounge. I saw Ohio upset Penn State, in an upset I had predicted earlier. I also saw Bowling Green get out to an early lead against Florida, but evidently they were unable to hold on.

Speaking of the second game, it was against Big Ten power Michigan State. Although we won our first two matches of the tournament, the Spartans proved too much for us to handle. They won in straight sets. It was still exciting to see such a prominent team come to our place.

A full day of volleyball, and a fun one at that. Even if we didn't win the second game and take the tournament crown, it was still a great day.