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The men’s club volleyball team can use last weekend’s tournament in Iowa as a tool to measure where it stands, sophomore middle blocker Nate Somers said.

“I’m pretty content with third (place) out of 23 teams,” he said.

After Saturday’s pool play in Iowa City, the 23 teams were divided into three tournament brackets: Gold, Silver and Bronze.

Eau Claire played two rounds of pool play on Saturday, beating the eventual tournament champion – the University of Iowa. The win helped Eau Claire earn a spot in the Gold Division for Sunday’s single-elimination competition.

“We’re pumped that we’ve been playing well,” senior Pat Corran said. “The high level of competition (in Iowa) is really going to help us get ready for conference.”

Eau Claire’s first match on Saturday resulted in a win over Marquette University, 25-17, 25-21. Eau Claire’s semifinal matchup with the University of Minnesota came at a time when Eau Claire played its worst game of the tournament, Somers said. Eau Claire fell in two games, 25-17, 25-21.

The win advanced Minnesota to the finals where they lost to Iowa, 25-17, 29-27. Iowa’s Steve Long was named tournament MVP. Minnesota’s Dan Johnson was the runner-up.

For Eau Claire, the tournament proved to be a tale of two days.

“The first day we played well,” Somers said. “The second day we just didn’t bring our A-game.”

In response to a possible rematch with Minnesota in this weekend’s Twin Cities tournament, Somers said, “If we played them again, I’d like to think we could beat them.”

The tournament in Iowa gave Eau Claire its best competition thus far, Somers said.

“After this weekend, I don’t know if there’s anybody in Div. II that should beat us,” Somers said.

This weekend’s tournament will include Providence College (R.I.), last year’s Div. II national champion. After last season, Providence jumped into Div. I.

“We’re looking forward to the challenge,” Corran said. “We think we can play with most anybody.”

Looking farther down the road, Corran said the team is looking to repeat its National Intercollegiate Volleyball Conference championship from last year.

“We’ve got the talent, we know that,” he said. “It’s just a matter of putting it all together. This group of guys has the ability to do that.”