How will you spend your Thanksgiving break?
ROCHESTER, Minn. - On a brisk November night last year, another chapter in the long rivalry between NYU and Juniata College was written.
After NYU was defeated in October on Juniata's home court in Huntingdon, Pa., the Violets invited their undefeated rivals into Coles Sports Center on Nov. 22 for the Elite Eight quarterfinal match and sent them home devastated. NYU unexpectedly toppled the Eagles in five tough, close games, propelling the Violets to their first Final Four in team history.
'The rivalry really became intense after we beat them last year,' senior co-captain Serena Bountour said.
Tonight, a new chapter will be added as NYU and Juniata face each other for the first time since that fateful night at Coles, this time in the national semifinals at the NCAA Division III Championship in Rochester, Minn.
The teams' rivalry is one that neither side can quite explain.
NYU Head Coach Ed Caesar said an unspoken competition has long lingered between the two teams but that things didn't really heat up until last year's quarterfinals.
'I don't think it would've really boiled up to the point it is now if we didn't beat them last year,' he said. 'I think we had to make that step toward them. They were undefeated, they were supposed to win the national championship, and then all of a sudden the pain-in-the-butt NYU took them down. I know that just got everyone going and probably brought all the emotions back up.'
This time, the stage is bigger, but the squad is facing an identical situation. Juniata is once again the top-ranked team in the nation in the latest College Sports Television/American Volleyball Coaches Association poll, while NYU is ranked ninth. Bountour and the Violets are eagerly anticipating their rematch with the Eagles.
'We're excited,' she said. 'I think it's impossible for anyone to say they're not nervous, but it's sort of an excited nervous. We're just ready to play.'
Caesar said he is equally confident about the matchup, since his squad is returning all six starters from the lineup that carried NYU to the unexpected victory at Coles last year.
'I don't expect them to not fight,' he said. 'It's almost like we have a dog on a leash right now - they look like they're ready to attack. When we let go of the leash tomorrow, they better attack Juniata hard, and I think they will.'
On the other side of the court, Juniata senior Katie Charles is looking forward to avenging the Eagles' sole 2003 loss.
'Last year I kind of feel we didn't play our best when we were [at NYU] and that's hard to go out on,' she said. 'This is our chance and our first time around this year. Most of the team from last year is still here from when we played NYU, so it's kind of a big deal right now.'
But Charles downplayed the Eagles' rivalry with the Violets, even after last year's loss.
'I think for the most part we have a rivalry with everybody,' she said. 'Any of the top teams, we're gonna be out there gunning for each other, so it just becomes an extremely competitive situation. It's a lot of fun. You get out on that court, trash-talking back and forth, and you're having a good time and playing really hard.'
Heated competition between the two schools didn't necessarily begin in 2003 - or even in women's volleyball.
NYU's and Juniata's men's volleyball teams have been clashing since NYU's program started in 1989.
Yet Caesar, who was a four-year member of that founding squad when he was a student at NYU, said he couldn't recall how it all began.
'As soon as I came in, I didn't know what Juniata was or where Juniata was,' Caesar said. 'When I started against them and we beat them, we didn't realize it was an upset. Then all of a sudden the talk started, the pushing and shoving started and even for the 10 years of me coaching [men's volleyball], it's been so heated, and the crowds are so nasty.'
Juniata Head Coach Larry Bock remembered the rivalry between the two men's teams from when he coached the Eagles' men's squad from 1990 to 1995. He said he even recalled Caesar as a powerful middle blocker who, as an NYU junior, gave one of Juniata's players a concussion in Huntingdon during the regular season.
'It was a great rivalry back then between the two teams,' he said. 'There's maybe a little bit of a carryover.'
As schools, NYU and Juniata could not be more different. NYU is in Manhattan, with an enrollment of about 50,000 students. Juniata is in a small town in the middle of Pennsylvania - five hours away from New York City by car - and has an enrollment of about 1,400.
Even their coaches are complete opposites. Caesar is 33 and in his third year as head coach at NYU. The Violets recorded his 100th career win in October at the NYU Invitational.
Bock, 55, has been coaching at Juniata for 27 years and celebrated his 1,000th career win in September, making him the most successful coach in NCAA women's volleyball history. Last year, he was one of the 23 inaugural inductees into the American Volleyball Coaches Association Hall of Fame.
'It's cool looking at him and seeing how old I'm getting here to be coaching against this guy,' Caesar said. 'It's a thrill. Even back then, when I played against him, I knew he was the best coach in men's [volleyball], just watching him.'
Perhaps what it comes down to is that neither side can take each other lightly on the volleyball court.
'NYU's such a good team that naturally whenever we play somebody of that quality your intensity meter goes way, way up,' Bock said. 'It feels to me that the meaningfulness of any match that's coming up with NYU would be great.'
Caesar said he is rather fond of the rivalry that has sprung.
'I think for the past 13 years of my life, my volleyball seasons come down to NYU vs. Juniata every year,' he said. 'It's a great rivalry, and for us to be considered in that sense with Juniata is a great thing for the women's program, because they've been [at the Final Four] so many times. We're starting to get recognition, so it's actually a great thing for us to even be included in this rivalry with the top team in Division III history.'
What it comes down to now is another brisk night in November - this time in Minnesota.
