Last weekend the boys volleyball team competed in the Bellarmine Invitational Tournament in San Jose.

Fresh off of a first-place finish in the silver division of the Las Vegas Easter Invitational over Spring Break, as well as two league wins against Cosumnes Oaks and Antelope last week, the Tigers entered the Bellarmine Tournament as the number three seed overall. They opened against Mt. Madonna High School Friday evening and won in two straight sets.

Despite not sustaining any blemishes on the scoreboard in the first match, the Tigers did take a blow in the form of losing one of their star players in middle hitter senior Neal Reilly. Reilly injured a muscle in his back in their first match on Friday that kept him out for the rest of the tournament. The injury also kept Reilly out of their league match against Bella Vista last night.

The Tigers’ second and final game on Friday came against the Serra Padres. The Tigers won in straight sets again, putting them at 2-0 overall after the first day.

The following morning, the Tigers took on the Leigh High School Longhorns. They ended up winning in a close match that required three sets with the scores of 18-25, 25-22 and 15-13 in favor of the Tigers.

Their next matchup was against the tournament’s host, Bellarmine College Prep, who are ranked just behind the Tigers at 24th in the state. Bellarmine swept the Tigers in two games with the scores of 25-19 and 25-22, respectively.

The Tigers’ second match of the day was against the Saratoga Falcons. The boys lost in three sets against the Falcons, which was their closest loss of the season, in which Roseville dropped the final two sets after winning the first set with a score of 25-23. The next two sets were won by the Falcons with the scores of 25-22 and 15-10.

The Tigers’ last match of the tournament was a rematch against Serra high school. The Padres avenged themselves by sweeping the Tigers in two sets with the scores of 25-20 and 25-20.

Senior libero Tommy Morin believes that losing Reilly to injury took a toll on the Tigers in the tournament.

“We started off strong, taking care of the first two matches on Friday and the morning match on Saturday,” Morin said “but we had difficulty executing against better teams, especially with Neal’s back injury. Raja Gossall did well filling in for him but Neal’s blocking and hitting presence is hard to replace.”

The Tigers finished 3-3 overall in the tournament and look to clinch the Capital Valley Conference title soon with only three league matches remaining in the season.