January 19, 2024
We will be updating the blog through the night so stay tuned for more content through at least midnight.
Congratulations to Springfield Head Coach Charlie Sullivan who picked up his 500th coaching victory for the Pride. Such an outstanding accomplishment and we are sure the wins will keep coming from this prolific program at D3.
We also want to shout out Andrew Kim of Hobart as he picked up his 1,000th career kill in D3 volleyball today. Almost all of those kills were accomplished at Vassar, but the graduate student is already finding success at the brand-new program at Hobart. Congrats Andrew!
That same Andrew Kim lit up the scoreboard today smoking 16 kills and 4 aces as Hobart beat Penn State Behrend in straight sets. Zack Farren had 30 assists and Anthoni Zontini lifted a team leading 7 digs while adding 8 kills. Dan Easly, Kevin Skweres and Owen Wienczkowski excelled on the attack for the Lions, but it was not enough firepower to turn back the Statesmen. Behrend then took on St. Norbert for their second match of the day but the results were much the same. SNC got 9 kills from Owen Knezevich and Kaden Kornaus in a close three set win. Michael Whitney had 27 assists as St. Norbert improved to 2-0.
Saint Vincent continued their winning ways today, powered by another dominant performance by Shawn McSwiggen. Shawn boomed 11 kills and also smacked 5 aces in the win. Zeb Wyant had 9 kills and Matt Klasnic had 10 digs.
It was a rough start for new program Houghton as they faced one of the top 10 team in the country today, St. John Fisher. SJF rotated 17 Cardinals and Evan Ingerick spread 28 assists through 10 players as well as adding 3 digs, 2 kills, and 3 aces in the win.
Chatham proved, for today anyway, that they were the best of two new programs hitting the floor for the first time. They took on Bethany from West Virginia and eased to a straight set win. Tim McCabe and Ben Shelestak each had 8 kills and Coulter Chafee had 18 assists. Evan Frank and Kyle Penn led Chatham with 5 aces each in the match.
Roanoke got another tick in the win column tonight as they took down D2 Lees-McRae in 5 sets. The match was neck and neck early with each team taking a set to start. Lees McRae dug in and netted a third set win at 25-20. But the Maroons took 40 of the next 62 points to win sets 4 and 5 convincingly, earning their second straight win. Dom Wheaton has 5 blocks for the Maroons and Jackson Rutkowski and Mike Cummings had 16 and 15 kills respectively for the winners. Colin Mendoza led all players with a .533 hitting percentage.
Drew and St. Elizabeth started their seasons tonight. If Uncle Rico threw a football, he could probably hit one campus from the other. See the map below…
Drew remains hopeful about their upcoming season. A late transfer from Kean, Andrew DuHaime, will have a positive impact on their talent level. And it is already paying dividends as Andrew had a stellar debut with 9 kills, zero attack errors, 5 aces, and 5 digs, hitting .692. DuHaime has spent his career setting but has found a new role for the Rangers at OH. CJ Addeo had 5 kills and hit .571 and Omarf-Ortega-Reyes posted 17 assists in a straight set win over the Eagles.
Southern Virginia dominated a solid Wittenburg squad at the Barn tonight. Jeremy Brown (AKA Jimbo Slice) had 9 kills and Christian Sheaffer had 8. Tyler Sheaffer had 15 assists and 5 kills for the Knights in a winning effort. 4 players, Brown, both Sheaffer’s and Kristo Bianchin tallied 3 aces each. SVU had 13 blocks over three sets.
St. John Fisher had their second match of the day taking on CVC power Juniata. The Cardinals wasted no time letting everyone in the nation know they are a top contender for the D3 National Championship as they downed Juniata in 4 sets. Middle Ian Rauh was unstoppable tonight slashing 17 kills and hitting .652. Griffin Stella added 9 kills. Setter Gavin Newman was all over the floor posting 39 assists, 13 digs, and 2 aces. The 4 sets could not have been tighter, with sets one, two, and three going to extra time. New transfer Juan Armando was given a hefty workload with 42 attacks for Juniata. But Juniata could not keep up with the Cardinals charge on offense most of the night.
We caught up with Cards middle Ian Rauh, post-game, and he told us… “It was an amazing atmosphere for our first home games of the season. Our fans really showed out and we got the job done!”
Nazareth continued their winning ways with an impressive 4 set dumping of Lasell. AJ Burda controlled the offense posting 46 assists on the night while Owen Wickens provided 22 kills and Josh Weaver potting 12. Naz also out-aced Lasell 13-2 providing a big difference in the match.
NYU’s roster is made up of mostly Californians so the trip to play UCSC and Cal Lutheran this weekend served up some home cooking. Freshman Devyn Nguyen made his debut as the Violet’s setter and put up 41 assists, 2 aces, 8 digs, and 3 blocks. What an awesome start to his college volleyball career. He spread his sets to six different attackers on the night. Ry Kagen and Luke Boyer smooshed 10 kills, Lucas Osiecki had 9, and Buddy Cohen ripped 8 in a 3-1 NYU win. Kyle Ownby had a nice night for UCSC slapping back 8 blocks. It’s the Banana Slugs third loss of the season after one week. Rough start but all the loses were against top competition.
Another gutsy performance by Cal Lutheran as they put down one of the Midwest elite teams in Carthage in 4 sets. The Kingsmen looked like the better team tonight on the attack and on defense. Carthage had the advantage on the block throughout the match. Both teams did not serve well but its early in the season. The star of the game for us was Taylor Marks of Cal Lutheran. He not only orchestrated a well thought out offensive attack at setter, but he made some spectacular digs on sure Carthage kill attempts that kept the momentum in the Kingsmen’s favor. Taylor had 34 assists and 9 digs. Ben Weber played very well, hitting .320 and uncorking 12 kills. Michael Stahl also had an impressive match with 8 digs, 3 aces, and 9 kills.
You have to give it to the Carthage reserves. They kept their team in the match through the first three sets, despite being down, with an immense amount of energy from the sideline. Ryan Cholewinski cracked 9 kills and hit .471 and Mitch Geiger had 11 kills while hitting .273. Gene McNulty had 18 assists for the Firebirds.
46 teams have yet to start their season… Roanoke, Cal Lutheran and Nazareth have already played 17 sets, which leads the nation.
IH