Recollections from Alum Gil Taylor Continued: "My strongest memory of that season ('78-'79) is of Gil [Young] so going wild in the conference final against the U of M that the ref (who happened to be his father) pronounced from the stand: “This man is a veritable volleyball team unto himself!” Gil’s heroics hauled the team into a one-game, winner-take-all climax, in which the U prevailed.

With the graduation of seniors Shelley, Young, and Ken White, the ensuing 1979-80 season was a rebuilding one for the club. Senior captain Matt Pelikan, in his trademark falling-down socks, did his best to mold the now sophomore-dominated team into a competitive force within the NIVC, assisted by juniors Dave Burr and Tim Yaukey. Their efforts led us, in the double-elimination conference tournament held at St. Olaf, to victory against all our collegiate opponents—except for the U, who wiped the floor with us at the final match.

The following season, 1980-81, the club won the NIVC conference championship held at UW-Stout in Menominee, Wisconsin. The team members were: senior Dave Burr (captain/spiker); juniors Kevin Armstrong (setter/spiker), John Carroll (jack-of-trades), Eric Morton (setter and setter of ugly hair styles), Brian Smith (spiker/center blocker), Jeff Sundberg (spiker/center blocker), Gil Taylor (spiker/center blocker), and Tom Watanabe (doctor of defense); and sophomore Cliff Beshers (spiker/center blocker). The club also had strong Team A Prime participation in practices and some matches from Karl Fricke (heckler-in-chief), Roger Day, and Tim Walker. Kevin Armstrong earned the NIVC MVP laurels.

Minus the now-graduated Burr, but augmented by freshman Carl Weisman, and with Team A Prime enhanced by freshmen Stephen Young and Kirk Weidner, the club defended its title in the 1981-82 season; its coach was women’s volleyball coach Joyce Davis. To honor the effort, and to hex our hereditary enemy the U of M when they arrived on our home turf, Robert Edwards, in a first and possibly unique appearance by a president of the College, gave the VB club a polysyllabic benediction and then threw out the first ball. His spectatorship and that of perhaps several hundred others was vindicated by our rousing victory, 15-11, 4-15, 15-13, 15-12. Fortunately fans weren’t so loyal as to head up I-35 and witness the U avenging itself in its home-court rematch, 5-15, 9-15, 12-15. (For the record, in 1978-82 we never defeated the U at the U.) Other highlights of 1982 were reaching the semi-finals of Winter Carnival, and then the finals of USVBA A Regionals which earned us a place at the AA Regionals—in which we were obliterated 0-8. And then came to pass the NIVC finals: in the double-elimination tournament we lost twice to the U.  Kevin Armstrong repeated as the NIVC MVP; Jeff Sundberg and Cliff Beshers were named to the NIVC second team.