February 15, 2024
A big weekend of D3 volleyball is coming up fast but we have a full Thursday night schedule to focus on for tonight’s blog.
King’s was dealt their first loss of the season, a straight set sweep by Widener. The Pride was in command the entire night and took the second set 25-10. It’s a good win for Widener who improves to 5-4 on the season. Nice night for Matt Christ who jacked 13 kills, had 3 aces, and hit .364 with 3 blocks. Josh Matchett had 30 assists, 3 aces, 5 digs and 3 kills for Widener and Stephen Marquis had 5 kills, no errors, and hit .714. King’s had difficulty getting the attack in sync and hit under .100 for the match.
Carthage impressed tonight as they took down a very solid MSOE team in 4 sets. Senior Keegan Brumitt was given a chance to show off his stuff tonight and he did not disappoint racking up season highs in kills (11), points (14), digs (6), and blocks (5). The freshman pair of Owen Otto and Ben Heise were electric as Owen smashed 9 kills and Ben ripped 7. They should call Ben “Sledge” as the 6’6″ lefty has a big hammer for a left arm. MSOE seemed outmatched in sets 1 and 2 but came back to win set 3 and was hard charging in game 4, winning 8 of the last 10 points. MSOE fell to 3-2.
Cal Lutheran continues to show they can play top level volleyball as they went toe to toe against D1 UC Santa Barbara tonight. The Kingsmen took the first set and battled UCSB to extra time in sets 2 and 3, falling in both 29-27 and 26-24. UCSB rolled with the momentum and defeated Cal Lutheran in 4 sets. Michael Stahl had 16 kills and Jordan Cooper added 11. Taylor Marks continued his sensational season adding 42 assists, 6 digs, 2 blocks and 5 kills. The Kingsmen are now 11-4 but may actually move up with the loss considering the competition.
The algorithm is struggling a bit trying to interpret the season of Baldwin Wallace and where they fit in the ranking. Our pre-season report had them solidly entwined in the top 20. But, the Yellow Jackets have now lost 4 in a row, albeit to strong teams. NCC seemed in charge tonight with the exception of BW turning up the heat in set 3 and fighting to the death to win a 36-34 set. They will continue to get tested this weekend with games against Messiah and Nazareth. As for tonight’s game, NCC had strong performances from Jared Moser (19 kills, .406, 13 digs), Austin Scott (8 kills. 7 digs, 4 blocks) and of course Tyler Donovan (39 assists, 10 digs, 3 kills, 3 blocks). Cooper Lundal and Mitchell Hester excelled on the attack for the Cardinals as well. NCC has put together a nice 5 game win streak. They have a 5-set loss to Cal Lutheran 3 weeks ago and started the season by getting beat by Dominican. They have lost a set in each of their last 4 wins to Aurora, Concordia-Wisconsin, MSOE and tonight to BW. This would typically indicate that they may not be the power of last years team, but more of a 10th to 15th ranked team, at least based on the data so far. They will play Nazareth this weekend which will continue to tell their story for 2024.
Lasell brought their “A-game” to Wentworth today and saw several players step up and have outstanding performances. Theo Zaharewicz had 15 kills and hit .400, Jordan Shinaut slammed 12 kills and hit .458, Jan Baranowski pounded 9 kills and .533, and Jesus Garcia had 42 assists. But it all was still not enough to take down the #2 Leopards. Josh Milke had 57 assists and Jacob LaBouliere hit .556 with 23 kills to lead Wentworth to their 12th straight win. With 19 games left on their schedule, it’s going to be hard to believe that Wentworth will finish with more than 3 losses. They play Nichols tomorrow, play in the California tourney starting 3/8 where they will face Marymount, Cal Lutheran, and UCSC, and play NYU at home on 3/17. We doubt any other team on their schedule will be too close until the probable Lasell matchup at Conference playoff time. Could they be undefeated come conference playoffs? Certainly a possibility.
Chatham and Carlow faced off tonight. A battle of two very evenly matched teams. This one went five sets, with Carlow pulling out the home victory 15-12 in the fifth set. We saw some records fall in this match. Setter James Stone logged 60 assists tonight, one of the highest marks this season by any setter. And Will Piccolino registered 33 kills for the match. That is the 15th highest kill count in D3 history. Russ Cyprowski had 22 kills which on any other night may have been the weeks best at D3. It was Carlow’s second win of the year. For his record setting efforts tonight, we recognize Will Piccolino as Player of the Night. He hit .328 and had 9 digs and an ace for the top performer of 2/15.
Some really exciting matches are scheduled for Friday… Tune in by live feed if you can!
Vassar vs. Lasell, Wentworth vs. Nichols, Benedictine vs. New Paltz, Randolph Macon visits SVU, Messiah vs. Baldwin Wallace, NCC vs Nazareth, and UCSC vs Dominican.
IH