When the University of Charleston's men's volleyball team concludes its two-game home stand with Princeton University at 4 p.m. today at the Charleston Catholic Athletic Complex, it will have hosted its second Division I program this season.
For most Division II schools, that's unheard of. For UC men's volleyball, it's just part of conference play.
The Golden Eagles are thinking big for their 2-year-old program, which is in its first season as a member of the Eastern Intercollegiate Volleyball Association. The hope is that, by jumping into the deep end of the pool right away, the team soon can swim strong among the sport's big fish.
UC coach Michael Crane relishes the opportunity to join a conference full of Division I opponents.
"We've always been sink or swim," he said. "When I draw up my schedule, I schedule the hardest teams anyway, so this conference is like playing the regular season for us."
This season's schedule is no different, with four teams in the current American Volleyball Coaches Association Top 15 on the list. Two of those teams, No. 8 Penn State and No. 15 St. Francis, are fellow EIVA members. The rest of the conference includes UC, George Mason, Harvard, Princeton, NJIT and Sacred Heart. George Mason visited Charleston for a match on Jan. 16. UC is the only Division II member of the conference.
Division I and II teams often cross paths in men's volleyball. There are 43 teams nationally, so the chances of joining a league with Division I schools are pretty good. There were other options for UC, like Conference Carolinas, which consists of smaller schools. But UC athletic director Bren Stevens said, ultimately, the EIVA was the best fit.
"It aligned us with some pretty prestigious schools and it would be a great opportunity to get into it," she said. "What they wanted to know was how we'd support the program, so it could be competitive in the EIVA once we get up and running. We talked to them about our new facility and they liked the location of the college. We're within their footprint."
Crane, a former team captain at Trinity Christian College in Illinois, sees it as a dream come true, in a sense. He always wanted to play in the EIVA, and now he's a member as a coach. His Golden Eagles (2-6, 0-1 EIVA) have some of the qualities he feels will help them grow in the conference.
"All the guys are really athletic, which is nice," Crane said. "We're a little bit undersized, and that can be an Achilles heel or an advantage, depending on how you look at it. Our middles are usually smaller than the other teams' middles, but they're usually faster and usually have big verticals."
Yet UC still lacks experience, which stung when it played Loyola-Chicago and Lewis, last season's national champion and runner-up, respectively, earlier this year. That experience will come, and so will the Wehrle Innovation Center, the new home for UC athletics set to open this fall. Crane thinks that could entice national men's volleyball powers to visit Charleston more often, and tempt recruits to join the roster.
The program is in its infancy, but Crane believes it will grow to become a worthy ambassador of men's volleyball in the Kanawha Valley.
"We're still young," Crane said. "It's going to take a couple of years until we can become that consistent team that walks out on the court and people will go, 'All right, game faces on, it's going to be tough.' We make young mistakes, but that's part of the growing process. We'll make fewer young mistakes next year, and the next year we'll make less and, eventually, we'll be that stable program that puts a good show on the floor game in and game out."