Photographing The NCAA Tournament Again

In 2016 I photographed the NCAA volleyball tournament for the first time. That was a fun volleyball season that let me go on a few road trips. That final trip with Purdue to Missouri was really fun. Over the last few years I have been lucky enough to get to photograph the tournament a few more times. This year I was really watching Purdues last two away games in Michigan hoping for wins that would mean a hosting opportunity again. Volleyball is a fun sport that I really did not get to photograph much of this year. Tournament volleyball is cranked up a notch and really fun to photograph. To be honest though a lot of Big Ten games have a tournament atmosphere. Holloway rocking is not a concept just for the tournament. It does look good trimmed in the blue colors of the NCAA Tournament though. I thought that instead of posts for each game that I would just recap the tournament in one post. It might be a long one, but kind of fun to look back at the last few days.

Marquette Practice

For the last three odd years I have photographed Marquette in the NCAA Tournament. For the last two visits that also included the practice the day before. I like this opportunity as it lets me so who plays with emotion. It gives me a chance to know the players a bit before they take the floor on the next day. The practice also lets me gets some angles of the NCAA signage that would be impossible on a game day. You can see my full gallery from the practice on the Marquette site here.

Marquette vs. Eastern Illinois

The first match of the tournament was between Marquette and Eastern Illinois. Marquette really had this one in hand from square one. It was a three set sweep which meant that I had limited time to make photos. I still managed to make a few that I liked though during the match. You can see my full gallery here.

Fairfield vs. Purdue

This was the David vs. Goliath matchup of this region. I don’t think that many were giving Fairfield a shot at taking down Purdue. Just before the match started I had the thought that it would be nice if they could grab the first point. That would be a big celebration. They did just that, and also had a few more big celebrations during the three set affair. This team had a lot of fun playing one final time together. You can view my gallery from the match here.

Marquette vs. Purdue

This was the big matchup of the weekend. Going into the game I really thought that this would be a five set thriller. Sometimes you just need a couple of breaks, and Marquette did not get those in a couple of key situations. To their credit Purdue took advantage of those breaks and won in four sets. It was a very fun match to cover though. Both teams were making amazing plays to keep points alive. Late in the fourth set I had the thought that if Marquette could have taken the set they might have used that momentum to win the race to 15 in set five. My photo gallery would have been completely different with some jubilation photos at the end of the night. It is crazy how my job now requires me to root against Purdue more than I root for them.

Photographing Maddie Schermerhorn One Last Time

Maddie is one of the few athletes left from when I helped cover Purdue sports. She was fun to photograph as a freshman in 2019. She always had a smile on her face, and was a great person to go to for the celebration photo. Late in set four I decided to try and make one last photo of the graduate student.

Taking The Best Photo

Late in the match I knew the point was going to Purdue during a crucial time. There is nothing for me to photograph on the Marquette side so I quickly panned over to the Purdue side to make this photo. I kind of like how this one turned out. It tells a story with the NCAA banner in the background.

More Photos from the weekend. You can look at the full galleries from each match by clicking the links above to go directly to the schools websites. Below though I put a few bonus photos from each event that I really liked. This is always a fun time of the year to make photos.