The highly anticipated 2012 Morgan Classic Hall of Fame tournament has come and gone and has crowned a new victor, Springfield College. For the first time ever in the tournaments history, SCVB was able to get the win in the championship match. While only appearing in the championship four times prior to this in the tournament’s 25-year history, the Pride was fairly new to this senario. The win, on the other hand, was handled as if we had been there many times before.
The first match was pitted us against a Division III rival, UC Santa Cruz. Ranked third in the country, this was a major victory for us. A huge crowd gathered in “white-out” fashion to support us, and the intensity from the crowd made Blake Arena a difficult place to play in for the opposition. We were able to control the intensity of the first two sets by sticking to our game plan and level of play. We took the first set, 25-18, before showing lots of fight in the second. We battled back from being down 24-21 and rallied to win in extra points. The crowd was going wild. The third set featured a different Santa Cruz team and a flatter Springfield team. After the third set, we were able to bounce back quickly and take the fourth set. For only the fifth time in tournament history, SC was headed to the championship match against Lees-McRae.
With another great crowd to play in front of, SCVB took the court again against Lees-McRae College. We knew what we had to do and that history was on the line. Thanks to some great playing from Angel Perez, Nick Ferry, and Greg Falcone, we were able to sweep Lees-McRae in three sets. This capped off the first time in history that Springfield College has hoisted the Morgan Classic trophy. A congrats goes out to Mike Pelletier and Nick Ferry for making the All-Tournament team and Angel Perez as the MVP of the tournament.
Finally, thank you to all of the SCVB parents, past and present, who came to support us as well the rest of our fans. All weekend, the arena was packed and you all made it difficult for the other teams to even think on the court. Especially you Green-Man.
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