[Men's Volleyball] Men's Volleyball Wins Conference Tournament to Advance to Nationals
- Troy Baranik, Sports Information
CAMPBELLSVILLE, Ky. - The #2 seeded St. Andrews University Men's Volleyball team took care of their arch rival, top-seeded Warner University (Fla.) in three sets (29-27, 25-14, 25-22) on Saturday morning to win the Southeastern Regional Conference Tournament title and clinch their bid to the NAIA Nationals in 10 days.
SAU improves to 19-6 on the season with the win and will next advance to play at the NAIA National Invitational from April 17-21 in Des Moines, Iowa. Time and Opponent TBA.
FINALS: SAU 3, Warner 0
Warner got off to a good start in the first set, which turned out to be the decisive game of the final. SAU stayed right with them throughout with Warner taking their biggest lead of the game at 22-17 forcing a Knights' timeout. However, SAU would rally going on a 7-1 run to setup game point only to see Warner take their final lead of the match at 25-24. But some Warner errors combined with some clutch SAU kills led to a 29-27 first set triumph for the Knights. SAU finished with 16 kills in the game while hitting .195.
With SAU having all the momentum in hand, the Knights would jump out to a big 13-6 lead on the Royals forcing a timeout. Warner would never be able to get back in the match as SAU would increase their lead to 18-8 and eventually win the set 25-14 as they hit .360 with 12 kills. Warner made 8 errors with only 6 kills.
Finally, in the final set, SAU would lead early and hang onto their lead throughout the set never letting Warner get within 2 points until SAU held a 24-20 advantage. Warner then scratched across two points before a service error clinched the win for the Knights 25-22 sending them to Nationals. SAU then hit an impressive .421 in the third set with 11 kills to help them clinch the match.
This is the first win over Warner (17-3) in program history and the first Nationals bid in school history. It is also the second men's or women's volleyball bid for St. Andrews as the women's team also qualified for Nationals back in 2016.
SAU played so well in the match that they totaled more kills (39-34), digs (31-27), aces (6-2) and blocks, 11.5 to just 3 for Warner. SAU definitely had their biggest advantage on the block as their height prevented Warner from getting too many clean kills leading to block points for the Knights. SAU also hit .294 for the match while Warner hit just .146.
Freshman Outside Hitter Diego Hernandez (FR/San Juan, Puerto Rico) led the Knights again with 13 kills on 21 attacks to hit .429 with four total blocks, 2 digs, and 2 assists. Senior OH Robin Imar (SR/St. Medard, France) then played well too hitting .259 with 10 kills, 3 blocks, four digs, and two aces in the win.
Sophomore Edgar Huerta (SO/Salinas, CA) then added 8 kills on the right side while sophomore middle Nate Blackwell (SO/Menifee, CA) had five kills in the middle with no errors to hit .714 with a team-high five assisted blocks. Huerta also added 4 blocks, 4 digs, and an ace. Senior middle Sean Hale (SR/Angels Camp, CA) also tallied a kill with four blocks as well.
Sophomore Jackson Stark (SO/St. Louis, MO) added 32 assists, five digs, one block, two kills and two aces as he played another stellar game as the Setter while fellow sophomore Jacob DeSouza (SO/Quail Valley, CA) had double digit digs again as the Libero with ten. Freshman Daryn Friedman (FR/Pembroke Pines, FL) also added four digs and an ace.