Knights Freshman Forese Near Perfect on Attack
March 6, 2026
BUENA VISTA, Va. — Knight Arena was buzzing, the crowd pressed close to capacity, and the moment carried weight that everyone inside understood. The defending NCAA Division III national champions, the Southern Virginia University Knights, had welcomed the top-ranked team in the country to The Barn. What followed was a performance that left no doubt about who still owns the throne.
Southern Virginia swept Juniata College 3-0 on Thursday night, winning by scores of 25-23, 25-18, and 25-21 to improve to 18-2 overall and 2-0 in Continental Volleyball Conference play. Juniata, which entered the evening co-No. 1 in the AVCA Division III poll alongside Springfield and carrying a 17-1 record, dropped to 17-2 and fell to 1-1 in conference action. The loss was their first of the league season. The win was Southern Virginia’s most significant yet in 2026 and carried direct implications for who will host the upcoming CVC tournament.
The Eagles came ready. Juniata built a 7-2 lead early in the first set and forced a Southern Virginia timeout. The Knights gathered themselves, then answered with seven consecutive points to flip the lead and the energy in the building. Play tightened through the middle of the frame, but Southern Virginia closed with a 3-0 run capped by a block from Gehrig Tolman, Tommy Forese, and Jason Wang to take the set 25-23.
Tolman, the junior setter from Gilbert, Arizona, finished with 28 assists and proved to be as much a defensive weapon as a distributor. In the third set, he dove and used his foot to keep a ball alive, a play that ignited the crowd and produced another Knights point. A 2025 AVCA Second Team All-American, Tolman holds the program’s single-season assists record with 1,009 from last year. He added three kills on five attempts at a .600 clip and seven digs on the night.
The second set belonged to Southern Virginia from the service line. The Knights recorded nine aces as a team in the match, four of them delivered by senior opposite hitter David Ward. Ward, a Gloucester, Virginia native who transferred from Eastern Mennonite University after earning CVC Second Team honors and surpassing 600 career kills, was a constant force. His serving proved suffocating, and late in the set, Forese teamed with Wang on a block to put the Knights on the brink of victory and send the crowd into full voice.
Freshman outside hitter Tommy Forese led all scorers with 11 kills on 19 attempts without committing a single attack error, finishing at a .579 hitting percentage. The 2023 Arizona 5A Player of the Year from Casteel High School in Gilbert, Arizona, showed the kind of composure and efficiency that does not usually come from first-year players on the biggest stages. His presence on the right pin gave Tolman a reliable weapon in critical moments throughout the evening.
Sophomore Brady Dastrup added eight kills and three block assists, building on his role from the 2025 championship run. Wang chipped in three kills and four block assists to anchor the net presence. Nathan Mitchell contributed a kill and three block assists, and the team as a whole recorded 16 block assists, a figure that reflects how cohesively the front row operated against a Juniata attack that entered the match averaging 12.48 kills per set on the season.
Southern Virginia hit .324 as a team across 74 attacks with only 10 errors, a disciplined performance against one of the best programs in the country. Ward closed the night in fitting fashion, sending home a final service ace to punctuate the sweep and give the Knights their second win over a top-20 opponent in 2026.
The defending champions are now alone at the top of the CVC standings with a two-match conference record. The message delivered at The Barn on Thursday was clear and direct: Southern Virginia remains the standard in Division III men’s volleyball.
The Knights return to action Saturday, March 7, hosting Randolph-Macon College at 3:00 PM as part of a tri-match at Bridgewater.