BOX SCORE
LEXINGTON, V.A. I St. Joseph's-Long Island's dream season continues.
The newly minted Skyline Conference men's volleyball champions are advancing in the NCAA Tournament following a 3-1 win over Thiel College in the first round tonight. The Golden Eagles are now 23-8 on the spring, dropping Thiel to 22-7.
St. Joseph's-LI advances to the NCAA Div. III Regional Second Round and will face host No. 2 Southern Virginia University tomorrow at 4 p.m.
As for today's win, junior Luke MacPherson and graduate student Tyler Anderson both finished with a team-best 10 kills and .320 hitting percentage. MacPherson added seven digs an a pair of aces with Anderson pitching in with four blocks. Senior Logan Meyer added seven kills and seven digs. Middles Hank Foglia and AJ Esposito knocked down six kills apiece and finished with four and five kills, respectively. Setter Will Kropp recorded 35 assists. Libero Chris Sarnicola picked up a team-best 11 digs.
Meantime, Ezra Oesterline of Thiel recorded a match-high 18 kills and 12 digs.
The match opened with a closely played set one that saw 15 tied scores, five lead changes and neither side leading by more than three points. Tied at 20, St. Joseph's-LI's Anderson knocked down a kill and followed it up with and ace for a 22-20 advantage. Coming out of a Thiel timeout, Kropp and Esposito teamed up for a block giving the Golden Eagles their largest lead of the set, 23-20, and the duo did it again a few points later to secure the 25-23 win.
The Tomcats bounced back in set two leading wire-to-wire evening the match with a 25-17 win. Thiel hit .323 as a team while holding St. Joseph's to just .067.
Set three started out point for point and with the Golden Eagles holding a slight, 12-11 lead, an Esposito kill sparked a 6-0 run for a 17-11 advantage. The Tomcats responded with a run of their own inching to within two, 18-16. But St. Joseph's-LI managed to keep Thiel at arms distance to claim the 25-20 win. MacPherson, the Skyline Player of the Year, finished with a team-best four kills and two aces.
Set four started as a back-and-forth affair, seeing five tied scores and neither side able to build a lead larger than three until a kill from Meyer put the Golden Eagles ahead, 20-16. The Tomcats would get themselves to within two a few times down the stretch, but a kill from Anderson sealed the 25-21 win sending the Golden Eagles to the second round.
-With St. Joseph's-LI Sports Information