The Illinois men’s club volleyball team has been struggling to close out matches all season long.

Finally, it appears the squad is learning what it feels like to win.

Hosting their only tournament of the year, the Illini (21-3) swept through the field to the tune of a 6-0 record. The team went on to win in the finals against Illinois Alumni B, who had won the tournament the previous three years.

“I felt we played very well this weekend,” junior setter Chris Walstra said. “I thought that the team finally got into a nice rhythm in the playoffs.”

During the first two games of pool play, the Illini easily handled both the University of Iowa and Indiana University in successive sets.

After winning the first game against the Illini Alumni, the squad dropped the second 25-15 before finishing off the older Alumni in three games.

“That’s a squad (Alumni B) that has played together for almost a decade, so they are a very challenging group,” senior middle blocker Ryan Fabrizius said. “In fact, never before in my career have we beaten an alumni team in the playoffs of a tournament.”

In the playoffs, the Illini beat a solid University of Notre Dame team that gave Illinois fits all last season.

The win against the Irish set up the final matchup with the Alumni team.

“I think this tournament we were finally starting to understand what it meant to win a game,” sophomore libero Pat Condron said. “Instead of taking the lead and relaxing like we have done in the past, we took the lead and ran with it.”

The defense that has been inconsistent at best for Illinois this season ended up being one of the team’s strongest points this weekend. “The defense was pretty stellar,” Fabrizius said. “We were very scrappy, which made up for some of the shortcomings of the blocking.”

After traveling all season, the Illini did not only enjoy winning their own tournament, but getting a chance to play in front of their home crowd as well.

“I always look forward to playing here at home,” Walstra said. “Not only families get to come, but our friends also get a chance to see us play.”

“We had a pretty good fan turnout,” Fabrizius said. “To feel a little bit more like our sport matters to someone other than us was great.”

Illinois will practice for the next two weeks before heading to Michigan State University for the Back to the Hardwood Tournament on Dec. 2-3.

The Illini second team also played in the tournament, going 2-1 in pool play and losing to the Illinois first team in the playoffs.