We are halfway through week 13 of the D3 Men’s Volleyball and this week has seen more than a few games that will affect the playoff landscape and possible Championship tournament selection. Let’s start with last night when NJCU took a 14-game win streak into their last conference game against St. Joe’s Long Island. The Gothic Knights had such a rough start to their season, but they have stayed positive and have been lights out on the court, especially in March where they went undefeated for the entire month. Their conference rival, St. Joe’s, has played a much tougher schedule according to our rating system than NJCU and remained ahead of the Knights in the ranking even after NJCU beat St. Joe’s in their last match. The defending Skyline Champs were in top form tonight as they slayed the Knights in 4 sets. After NJCU took the first set on their home court, the Golden Hawks outscored the Knights 75-51 and rallied to win the next three sets. SJLI has an 8-game win streak and now holds the tiebreaker with NJCU for home court advantage in the Skyline Tournament. It’s highly likely that these two teams will meet one more time with the winner punching their ticket to a slot in the NCAA Championship tournament.
A few games jumped off the schedule tonight regarding playoff seeding impact. Sam Levinson returned to the Pride lineup tonight, but Springfield took another loss, this time to MIT in 5-set thriller. Levinson had 13 kills and was one of 4 Pride team members with double digit kills but they fell 17-15 in set 5. Costly, Rouleau, and Walters were also impressive on the attack while Dylan Mulvaney put up 53 assists. MIT was led by Nick Gustafson’s 19 points and 45 assists from Max Turner. Grant Oh, Mike Rini, and Phillip Johnson were all outstanding on the attack for MIT. Springfield hit .557 in the crucial 4th set but lost 26-24. Springfield appeared to be a lock for the Championship tournament as the independent bid recipients along with Cal Lutheran and Nichols but they now have lost 2 in a row, 3 of their last 5, and 4 of their last 8. Springfield plays Vassar on Saturday. MIT enters the UVC tourney on 4/12 at 17-7 at D3.
Southern Virginia made it 25 straight wins with another sweep, this time over league rival Marymount. Tyler Sheaffer had 34 assists with 5 Knights excelling on the attack including Christian Sheaffer (10 kills, .304), Sam Candland (9 kills, .353), Kyler Evans (9 kills, .667), Jeremy Brown (6 kills, .385) and Kristo Bianchin (6 kills, .444).
Loras dumped Augustana in an important CCIW matchup 3-0. Augustana stayed with the DuHawks in every set showing their vast improvement over last season as well as their ability to contend in the upcoming tournament. It was the fifth loss for Augustana who creeped into the IH top 15 this past week. The potent Loras duo of Dorian Fiorenza and Corey Mayotte combined for 34 kills and Joe Horn notched 40 assists. Loras remains with just one loss for the season.
Wentworth dropped a set against Endicott tonight with Ryan Roller stealing the show on the attack for the Leopards. Roller had 20 kills and hit .516 while adding 4 aces and 3 digs. Jacob LaBouliere had 14 kills, hit .423, and added 2 blocks, 8 digs, and 2 aces. Josh Milke continued his outstanding campaign by adding another 48 assists to his 2024 resume’.
It was MAC vs UVC tonight as NYU took on Misericordia at the Paulson Center. This one went 5 sets and NYU came out the winner 15-7 in the fifth set. Four Violets put up double-digit kills with Emerson Evans leading the way with 16 and Lucas Osiecki slamming 15. Devyn Nguyen spread 40 assists for the Violets who improved to 14-7. NYU still has St. John Fisher and Nazareth on their upcoming schedule this week, with their tournament fate on the line in what should be a wide open 6 team race to the finish. Vassar, St. John Fisher, MIT and Hobart have clinched a spot in the tourney, with NYU, Nazareth, and New Paltz fighting for a seed. One win in the two upcoming games will secure NYU a birth in the UVC tourney.
Benedictine looked solid with a sweep of Concordia Wisconsin this evening. Anthony Dobie knocked 14 kills for the winners and both Chase Olsen and Brannen Almarales each added 11 kills. Spencer Van Engen hit .714 with 5 kills, no attack errors, and a team leading 11 digs.
Some accolades from the last week:
Casey Goss from Dominican set a new single season ace record for the Stars. The junior opposite tallied his 45th against CUC.
Bill McCrae of Wells surpassed 200 kills for the season.
Jalen Suwa of UC Santa Cruz set a new school record this week. He lifted 33 digs for the Banana Slugs against MSOE for the single match record.
Rutgers Newark had to go to the tie-breaker but they won the NJAC Conference Championship. They finished in a tie with NJCU and Kean but prevailed in set wins to win the NJAC for the third year in a row.
Bryan Do of Drew moved past 500 career digs this week.
Edgewood junior Gavin Patterson is a new member of the 500-kill club.
Kudos to Lucas Beres of Concordia Wisconsin. He is currently leading the nation in blocks with 90 and blocks per set at 1.29.
What can you say about Andrew Kim from Hobart. He currently has 463 kills for the season, 90 kills ahead of second place Pat Wing. He is averaging 5.58 kills per set so far which is just amazing. All while hitting close to .400.
Who is leading the nation in assists? Gannon DeFrain of Misericordia currently has 910 assists, 20 ahead of Zach Farren of Hobart. Assists per set has five players over the 10/set mark. Reese Ganter of Juniata is leading the way at 10.78, with Josh Milke of Wentworth, Tyler Sheaffer from Southern Virginia, Joe Horn from Loras, and Brandon Long from Baldwin Wallace in close proximity.
Despite missing 17 days of the season due to injury, Owen Wickens of Nazareth is leading the nation in aces with 74, seven ahead of Gavin Newman of St. John Fisher. Wickens also leads in aces per set with 1.04 while Alex Bridgelall from John Jay is second with 0.96.
There is a lucky dozen of players who have exceeded 250 kills so far this season. Adan Rodriguez-Sapien (Bryn Athyn) and Josh Sangrey (Geneva) are battling it out for the top spot. Adan has tallied 307 and Josh has totaled 305. Tyler Quinn of Kean and Josh Liedke of Elms are close behind.
The race for the most solo blocks this season is super tight with James Mion of SUNY POLY with 35 and both Paul Binner of Wilkes and Aidan O’Brien of Stevenson with 34. Binner is leading in total blocks with 105, Carter Milroy of Geneva has 96, and Lucas Beres of CUW has 90. Total blocks per set is dominated by Beres at 1.29 with Kristo Bianchin of SVU and Lewis Rhodes of Penn State Behrend in second at 1.21.
