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The only Fort Wayne team to reach the NCAA Tournament finals will be immortalized in the school’s hall of fame.
The Mastodons announced Thursday that the 2007 Fort Wayne men’s volleyball team will become the first team to be inducted into the Fort Wayne Athletics Hall of Fame.
Fort Wayne, which changed its name from IPFW earlier this year, upset Ohio State in the 2007 MIVA Tournament finals to win the program’s last conference championship. As the No. 4 seed for the NCAA Tournament, Fort Wayne upset the No. 1 seed Pepperdine in the NCAA Tournament semifinals before losing to UC Irvine in the championship match.
The Mastodons following the postseason run finished a program-best No. 3 in the national coaches poll. In addition, the team had seven victories against nationally ranked teams to end the season at 23-8.
Along with the team’s accomplishments, Hall of Fame coach Arnie Ball was named the AVCA National Coach of the Year. Outside attacker C.J. Macias as a junior earned Second-Team All-American honors and led the Mastodons with a 4.75 kills per game average.
Fort Wayne also had 11 of the 16 players on its roster selected to the 2007 MIVA All-Academic Team.
Only individuals had previously been inducted into the Fort Wayne Athletics Hall of Fame.
The 2007 team will be officially honored during Fort Wayne’s home conference match against its in-state rival Ball State on Feb. 10.