[Men's Volleyball] Men's Volleyball Advances to Conference Finals
CAMPBELLSVILLE, Ky. - The #2 seeded St. Andrews University Men's Volleyball team advanced to the finals of their Mid-South Conference Tournament on Friday afternoon ousting #3 seed Cincinnati Christian University (OH) in five thrilling sets (20-25, 25-20, 28-26, 19-25, 15-9).
SAU improves to 18-6 on the season and will next face #1 seed Warner University (FL) in the finals on Saturday at 11 AM.
SAU 3, CCU 2
CCU (12-15), after winning their quarterfinal match earlier in the day, came out ready to go and took the first set from the Knights 25-20 as each team totaled 10 kills. SAU then came right back to take the second set 25-20 on 13 kills hitting .258 while CCU hit .231.
A close third set then saw the Knights pull out the close win 28-26 as a back and forth set had numerous momentum swings. CCU had more kills in the set, 15-14, but made more errors than the Knights as SAU hit .265. CCU then controlled the 4th set 25-19 on 12 kills and one error to force the fifth and deciding set.
In the final set, the match remained close as SAU led 8-7 at the court switch, but then ran away with the set and match going on a 7-2 run to clinch it on 6 kills and 2 errors.
SAU ended up with more kills than the Eagles in the match 56-51 while each team hit .233. SAU also had 12 more digs than the Eagles, 54-42, led by a season-high of 20 from sophomore Libero Jacob DeSouza (SO/Quail Valley, CA).
Freshman Outside Hitter Diego Hernandez (FR/San Juan, Puerto Rico) led the Knights with 19 kills and just 4 errors with 13 digs to record a double-double while hitting .429 with 3 assists and 2 aces and a solo block.
Senior OH Robin Imar (SR/St. Medard, France) then also recorded another double-double for the Knights by hitting 17 kills with 10 digs, an assist and two blocks. Sophomore right side Edgar Huerta (SO/Salinas, CA) also had double digit kills with 10 along with 7 digs, 3 blocks, an ace and an assist.
Sophomore Setter Jackson Stark (SO/St. Louis, MO) led with 49 assists, 3 digs, 3 blocks, an ace and a kill while Sophomore middle blocker Nate Blackwell (SO/Menifee, CA) registered 8 kills with 2 total blocks while hitting .357. Senior middle Sean Hale also tallied one kill and 4 blocks.