Springfield, OH– The Wittenberg Men's Volleyball christened the newly renovated 1929 Gymnasium with two crucial AMCC wins, taking down Hiram College and Geneva College on Saturday afternoon. The Tigers hosted the Terriers of Hiram College in game one, before taking on the Geneva Golden Tornados to close out the day. Wittenberg took both matches with 3-0 straight set wins, defeating Hiram to open the day [25-19, 25-21, 25-19] and closing out with a [25-14, 25-22, 25-23] win. The Wittenberg offense was paced by Deion Woodson on the day, recording 19 kills on the afternoon between the two matches.
Match One Breakdown
Wittenberg got off to a quick start against the Terriers, starting with a kill by Woodson. After a tight back-and-forth six points per team, the Tigers regained the advantage, pulling ahead to 7-6, following an ace by Isaiah Brock. The attack was all Wittenberg from there on out through the remainder of the set, as the Terriers were unable to regain the lead. An attack error by the Terriers and a block by Blake Sobieralski and Brock, sealed the first set Wittenberg win, 25-19.
In the second set, the Tigers were off to a quick lead, capitalizing on the back-to-back errors by the Terriers. An attack error by the Terriers and a kill by Justin Luby put the Tigers ahead at 22-20. Following an ace by Luby, Wittenberg sealed the win after the Hiram attack error, taking the second set, 25-21.
An ace by Brock opened up the scoring midway through the set for Wittenberg, taking the score to 11-8. From there, the Tigers continued to dominate, with an ace coming from Ross Russell and Woodson to put the score at 16-11. A kill by Woodson ended the set and the match with the final set score of 25-19.
Match Two Breakdown
In the Tigers' second game of the day against Geneva, the Tigers hopped out to an early 1-0 set lead at the end of the first set. Russell opened up the scoring for the Tigers with an ace, quickly followed by a kill by Ashton Sellers to put the score at 3-1. The Tigers continued their dominance, quickly taking their advantage to 10-6. The scoring only continued to come for the Red and White with kills by Gabriel Lamar, Jackson Tyler, and Sellers. Tyler's ace was the last point for the Tigers, ending the set in favor of the Tigers at 25-14.
The second set featured a tighter match between the two sides, with the Tigers pulling away with the 25-22 second set win. After falling behind early, the Tigers overcame the deficit, pulling ahead toward the end of the set with two kills by Woodson to put the game at 24-21. Sellers ended the set for the Tigers with a kill.
In the Tigers' final set of the day, the Tigers defeated the Geneva Golden Tornados by a score of 25-23. Woodson recorded the first point of the third set off of a kill. The Tigers kept the lead throughout the entirety of the third set, not letting the Tornados get within two of the lead. Just like the first score of the set, Woodson added a kill at the end of the third to give the Tigers the win.
Player Highlights
In the first game against the Terriers, Woodson recorded eight kills of 19 total attempts. Tyler and Luby recorded seven kills on 23 and 13 attacks, respectfully. Russell recorded 21 assists while Noah Wissel added 14. Lamar and Tyler both had solo blocks, while Lamar also had three block assists.
In the second game against the Golden Tornados, Woodson led with 11 kills, closely followed by Sellers' nine. Russell assisted a total of 24 times, with Wissel adding 12.
Up Next
The Tigers will play at Thiel next Saturday, taking on the host, Thiel, and Penn St.-Behrend at 10 a.m. and 2 p.m. respectively.