April 22, 2023
The final 4 teams are set for the D3 Men’s volleyball championship at Stevenson University in Maryland next weekend.
#1 Vassar held off Southern Virginia after losing the first set. SVU received some major contributions from Jeremy Brown and Jayton Hall in addition to their normal crew of Christian and Tyler Sheaffer. Brown hit .435 with 13 kills and 3 aces and Hall hit .429 with 7 kills on the day. Tyler with 46 assists, 11 digs and 2 aces and Christian had 13 kills and 7 digs but was held to a .114 hitting percentage by the Brewers. Andrew Kim had 20 kills for Vassar, Jacob Kim had 35 assists, and the Brewers posted a nasty 52 digs on defense led by Jorge Adames Reys who had 11, and 14 overall blocks, led by Gavin Van Beveren and Billy Fan. Vassar was just too deep and too talented to not advance to final weekend.
North Central got their 4th win of the season against the defending champions Carthage Firebirds to leave “no-doubt” they are the well-deserved team for the Final 4. Tyler Donovan spread 48 assists over 4 sets with Jared Moser posting 16 kills (.314) and Ben Williams posting 17 (.316). Parker Nelson had 12 digs for the Cardinals. Jeremy Cardenas led the team with .467 hitting percentage, yielding 9 kills on 15 attempts. Carter Schmidt, David Markes, Zach Bulthuis, and Drew Jansen led the attack for the Firebirds but it just wasn’t enough to take down the 23-3 Cardinals.
The MAC ends up with 2 of the 4 finalists as both Stevens and Messiah advance. Mason Nissley and Matt Knab were unstoppable in today’s match with Knab posting 39 assists, 2 aces, 4 digs, and 3 kills while Nissley had 22 big kills and hit .400. Connor Stauffer, Adam Casper, Jacob Hamm, and Nate Bowman all supported a very strong attack in the 3-game sweep. Messiah held middle Kevin Duffy to 7 kills on the match. Juniata benefited from freshman sensation Max Barr returning to line-up this week but it wasn’t enough to spark a victory. Luke Hoffman had 7 kills and hit .545 for Juniata.
Stevens continued their amazing season with a 4 set win over Wentworth to advance. Louden Moran with 56 assists and the Duck’s hitter were ON. With hitting percentages as follows: Tyler Hoke .538 (8 kills), Connor Feulner .476 (12 kills), Percy Bickford .419 (17 kills), Nathan Lancia .250 (5 kills), Koby Sherman .368 (20 kills), Phil Bone .444 (5 kills), they are just not going to lose. The team is deep and super talented and will be a favorite to meet Vassar in the final. Jacob LaBouliere and Hunter Oshman’s outstanding efforts were not enough to push Wentworth to the upset. Josh Milke was solid at setter posting 35 assists, 5 digs, 3 blocks, and 2 kills.
We saw some really fantastic men’s volleyball today. Next week’s final tournament should be amazing with competitive games between 4 great teams as we move toward crowing this year’s champion.