The Butler volleyball team used an unconventional line-up to grind out a 3-2 win against Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis last night.

The Bulldogs were without a starter and other players were playing out of position, but they used 19 team blocks to bring home the win.

Collegian file photo

Sophomore Erica Stahl led the team with nine blocks, while junior Claire Randich finished with seven blocks.

Junior Maggie Harbison finished with a match-high 21 kills. Junior Morgan Peterson led with 53 assists and sophomore Brooke Ruffolo had 17 digs for the Bulldogs.

The team finished the weekend 2-1 at the Pittsburgh Panther Invitational.

Butler (4-2) opened the tournament with a 3-0 sweep of Howard.

The Bulldogs dominated Howard University in its first match, winning 25-13, 25-22 and 25-14.

Junior Maggie Harbison led the way with seven kills, while sophomore Belle Obert and senior Rachel Barber, both had six kills.

Leading the Bulldogs in digs was Peterson with six. Sophomore Kelly Kyle and Barber also contributed with five digs apiece.

Bulter continued its dominance by defeating Coastal Carolina (0-5) 3-2 on Saturday afternoon.

The Bulldogs started the match down 16-10 in the first set. Butler tried to rally but fell short as the Chanticleers closed out the set 25-22.

However, Butler quickly recovered and controlled the second set. The score was 14-0 before Coastal Carolina scored its first point.

Butler went on to win the set 25-8.

The Bulldogs won the third set by a score of 25-17 to take a 2-1 advantage.

The Chanticleers would recover in the fourth set and win by a score of 25-23, setting up a winner-takes-all fifth set.

Butler reversed its play in the first set, dominating the beginning stages of the fifth. With the Bulldogs up 7-1, the Chanticleers would not go away.

Coastal Carolina rallied and made the score 9-7, but Butler pulled away and ended up winning the set and match 15-12 and 3-2, respectively.

Pittsburgh (4-2) swept the Bulldogs 3-0 in the last match of the weekend.

In the first set, Butler lost in a close 25-17 battle.

The second set was summarized by the Bulldogs’ inability to hold leads. Butler had leads of 11-7, 15-10 and 23-18, but Pittsburgh was able to claw its way back each time.

Butler ended up losing the set 26-24 to find itself in a 2-0 hole.

In the third set, the teams traded points throughout. In the latter part of the set, the Bulldogs were able to stave off several match points.

In the end, the Panthers were too much and won the set 28-26 to complete the sweep.

Leading the Bulldogs was Kyle with 13 digs, Barber with 12 kills and Randich with four blocks.

Peterson also added six digs and Harbison contributed 10 kills, with both being elected to the All-Tournament Team.

The Bulldogs will host Western Illinois, Stephen F. Austin and Indiana in the Butler Classic starting Friday.

The new will meet the old this fall as the Butler volleyball team prepares for another season on the court.

The new is the fresh competition the Bulldogs will face in their first season as a member of the Atlantic 10 Conference.

Collegian file photo

The old are the four starters returning to the team—junior middle blockers Maggie Harbison and Claire Randich and sophomore outside hitters Kelly Kyle and Belle Obert.

Also returning are sophomores Jadyn Yarling and Brooke Ruffolo, who will share time at the libero position.

Coach Sharon Clark said sophomore middle blocker Erica Stahl, a transfer from Cincinnati, is a player to watch this season for the Bulldogs.

Clark also said she expects the team’s captains, senior outside hitter Rachel Barber and junior setter Morgan Peterson, to rise into key leadership positions.

Peterson, a transfer from Middle Tennessee State, will fill the role of setter for Butler.

Members of the team and coaching staff said they are excited by the new challenges and opportunities they will face in the A-10.

Players said they are eagerly anticipating traveling to new locations and facing both new teams and previously non-conference opponents within the A-10.

Butler was ranked seventh in the A-10 preseason coaches’ poll following last season’s campaign, which saw the Bulldogs go 16-14 overall and 11-5 in Horizon League play.

Defending A-10 Conference champion Dayton was unanimously selected as this year’s preseason favorite to win the conference. Xavier was picked to finish second.

The Midwest contingent of A-10 teams—specifically Dayton, Xavier and Saint Louis—are teams that players and coaches said they are most excited to play.

“Those [matches] have a little more meaning for us personally as we have played those teams in the past,” Clark said. “Because of their location and membership in the A-10, they are built-in rivalry games for us.”

Despite the new conference, Clark said the team’s expectations are the same as they have always been.

“We have been working hard to be the best team we can be this preseason in order for us to play our best,” Clark said.

Clark said she places an emphasis on focusing on each match individually. The team’s goal to win the conference remains the same despite new competition.

The team has been busy in its preparation for the upcoming season and, with a short turnaround, has wasted no time in scouting its new competition.

Coaches assigned each player an A-10 team to scout and introduce to the rest of the Bulldogs, focusing on everything from style of play and last season’s results to school locations and mascots.

Ruffolo said she feels Butler has an advantage because some A-10 schools have not faced Butler in the past.

“My personal goal for this season is just to wow everyone,” Ruffolo said. “I don’t think teams expect a lot out of us, and we want to prove them wrong.”

The Bulldogs have their first chance to do so this Friday at the DePaul Invitational, with matches against Indiana State, Eastern Illinois and host DePaul.

The team will play its first home match on Sept. 7 against Western Illinois as it hosts the annual Butler Classic.

Spring has arrived on campus, but that does not mean the school’s fall athletic teams are resting easy.

The Butler men’s and women’s soccer and volleyball teams are currently participating in spring seasons even though their regular seasons are still months away.

The men’s and women’s soccer teams are both in the middle of month-long exhibition seasons that run from late March to the end of April.

The men’s squad took on Oakland last Saturday and has four games remaining this spring. The women’s team has already faced three teams and will take on Indiana on April 21.

Men’s soccer coach Paul Snape said playing games against other schools in the offseason gives players a chance to face off against different competitors.

“The problem is when you play against each other, you can get stale,” Snape said, “so playing other teams is a great opportunity to stay fresh.”

Junior forward Katie Griswold, a member of the women’s soccer team, said spring games help the team plan strategy for the fall season.

“[Spring games] let our coaches see what we need to work on, what will best suit the team and which formations will fit our team best,” Griswold said.

The volleyball team has matches scheduled on each of the first three Saturdays in April.

Junior outside hitter Rachel Barber said that the younger members of the team take advantage of the spring season.

“(The spring season) benefits the younger players the most,” Barber said. “It’s about getting comfortable with each other and allowing the coaches to develop players.”

The football team may not have games scheduled for the offseason, but coach Jeff Voris has 14 practices planned between March 23 and April 20.

The practices will culminate in the annual Blue-White Spring Game on April 21.

Sophomore running back Trae Heeter said that the squad focuses on re-implementing the team’s formations.

It also gives younger players time to impress the coaching staff.

“In the spring, we re-install either our offensive schemes or our defensive schemes,” Heeter said. “It’s basically a time for the guys that have been here to continue to work on their skills and for the freshmen and sophomores to go out there and show the coaches what they can do.”

Despite the high demands of Division I athletics, Butler has been very successful with placing students on the Horizon League Honor Roll.

This past fall, Butler had eight students on Academic All-League teams.  Last year, 34 athletes received this honor between all of Butler’s athletic teams.

Butler also had an Academic All-American last year in basketball player Matt Howard, bringing the school’s all-time total to 45.

This is high in comparison to universities like Connecticut, which boasts a student population of more than 22,000 and has only 48 Academic All-Americans in school history.

In some cases, athletes come to Butler for academics first.

For junior golfer and pharmacy major Matt Vitale, his education was the priority in his college choice, and he later decided to walk on to the golf team.

“I came to Butler very educationally focused,” Vitale said, “and that is definitely the feel I got from the athletics department as well.”

The athletics department places an emphasis on academic success.

Student-athletes are required as first and second-year students to attend study tables and have both their academic and athletic advisers monitoring their academic progress.

The mission statement of the Butler University athletics department maintains that its goal is to support the university’s purpose by providing exceptional educational and athletic experiences for all student-athletes.

Student-athletes must meet the requirements of any student at Butler. They are each required to take at least 12 credit hours, but they average 15 hours per semester.

The average GPA of all 359 Butler athletes is 3.24.  The minimum GPA required to remain eligible to play is 2.0.

“In general, we want to make sure we continue to maintain the same level of success or higher than our student body does,” Beth Goetz, associate athletic director for administration, said. “For a school[‘s athletes] to have a 3.2 GPA is really impressive.”

Last year, there were 127 student athletes enrolled in majors within the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, 121 in the College of Business, 50 in the College of Education, 33 in the College of Communication, two in the Jordan College of Fine Arts, 17 declared as pre-pharmacy  and nine in graduate studies.

There is a 76 percent graduation rate over a six-year average for student-athletes, the same percentage as Butler students overall.

Junior volleyball player and chemistry major Rachel Barber said that she will be taking 18 credit hours next fall and that many of her teammates will be taking summer courses.

“You definitely load up [credit hours] in the spring and summer,” Barber said. “Our coach highly advises us to take summer classes.”

This helps ease the stress of performing both in the classroom and on the court.

Barber said she thinks of volleyball as a job and that she spends 30 to 40 hours in the gym during the season in addition to travel.

“You have to be so mentally tough to do this,” Barber said. “You just have so many people that want you to succeed.”

Athletes are never allowed to miss class for a practice, which results in many teams being forced to practice without all of their members most of the time.

“[Student-athletes are] here to be students first, so when they’re in class we adjust and either practice without them or try and move practice around,” Goetz said. “I don’t think we have one team that practices with everyone every day of the week.”

One of the biggest testaments to the success in the classroom for Butler’s student-athletes is their own satisfaction with their education.

Even in 2007, when senior exit reviews revealed that only 50 percent of student-athletes would come back to Butler to participate in athletics, many said they still enjoyed their academic experience.

“There was almost unanimous favorable opinion of their educational experience while they were here,” Athletic Director Barry Collier said. “If there is anything to be happy about, that’s it.”

In the past decade, Butler teams have captured 26 conference championships and have made appearances in NCAA national championship tournaments in men’s and women’s basketball, men’s soccer, volleyball, men’s cross country, lacrosse and baseball.

Butler has won the James J. McCafferty trophy a league-record eight times, most recently in the 2009-10 and 2010-11 seasons. It is awarded annually by the Horizon League for excellence in all sports.

In addition to the athletic success of Butler’s teams, there has also been individual academic success by the school’s student-athletes.

According to Goetz, the athletics department takes pride in its student-athletes for both their work as athletes and as students.

“Butler is really a special place in that the institution attracts people that are dedicated to their academic endeavors,” Goetz said. “To be successful at [athletics and academics] is just something that we just get to be so proud of.”