IPFW loses national championship game

[vu75]

In the men's volleyball national championship game IPFW lost to California Irvine 3-1.

[fwalum]

IPFW had beaten #1 Pepperdine to get into the Championship match. I am getting tired of the crowd on the ORU board that keeps saying that IPFW doesn't bring anything to the Mid-Con. When was the last time that ORU or any other Mid-Con school had a team in the final 4 of any NCAA Division 1 sport.

[valpotx]

They are talking about the sports that the Mid-Con sponsors, which IPFW is not that great at, sorry to say

[fwalum]

I understand that and I guarantee it will change. The local talent base is too strong, the facilities are decent (and getting better) and with the draw of finally getting a chance to really compete at the D1 level I see IPFW as a strong future competitor to the likes of ORU.

[valpotx]

I can see that as well, but was just trying to point out that currently they are not offering much in the way of competition

[fwalum]

Just pointing out that when they have made a commitment to something like volleyball they had been pretty successful and the the success of the volleyball team will reap benefits in other sports now that they have a conference affiliation like volleyball has had for many years.

[elgato1219]

IPFW has loads of talent from across the country, especially in the midwest. In Illinois, boys' volleyball is one of the top sports to play next to baseball, and there are loads of talented kids looking for somewhere to go to play collegiate volleyball. Not many D-1 schools that offer men's volleyball. Loyola being one of the few (and one of the tops in the nation) and Lewis University (D-3). You trek out to Indiana, you have Ball State and IPFW, two of the best schools for men's volleyball.

It's almost like they have the market cornered.