UC Santa Cruz Captures
First CVC Title
Greenville, Pa. – Despite a
late comeback attempt by the Carthage Red Men in the third set, the
UC Santa Cruz Banana Slugs held off the Carthage Red Men 25-23,
25-18, and 29-27 for a three-set victory at the Continental
Volleyball Conference Championships, Saturday evening.
UC Santa Cruz, ranked third in
the most recent American Volleyball Coaches Association (AVCA) NCAA
Division III poll, will receive the conferences automatic bid into
the first ever NCAA Division III Men’s Volleyball
Championships. Carthage, teh number one ranked team in the poll,
will have to wait until Sunday when the committee will announce the
final nine teams selected for the championship.
Offensively for Santa Cruz, Sal
La Cavera led all hitters with 18 kills (18-4-39) and had a .359
hitting percentage for the match. Jake Dietrich also came up big
for the Slugs, posting 14 kills on 21 attempts with three errors,
accumulating a .524 hitting percentage. Paul Leon added 37 assists
in the three set win.
For the Red Men, they were led by
Randy Hansen with 12 kills, hitting .308 (12-4-26) for the match.
Matt Yanz tallied 11 kills on 18 attempts and no errors for a .611
hitting percentage. Carthage’s Tyler Frings led all blockers
with four block assists, while Leon had two for UC Santa
Cruz.
UC Santa Cruz slid past a
determined Juniata College Eagles team 3-2 in the first semifinal
on the day. Carthage reached the final with a 3-0 sweep of
Stevenson University in the second semifinal match.
The NCAA Men’s Volleyball
Championship Tournament field will be announced Sunday morning at
8:30a.m. on www.NCAA.com.
CVC Ajj Tournament Team
# 11 Salvatore La Cavera III (Jr./OH/Huntingdon Beach, Calif.)
- UCSC
# 17 Paul Leon (Sr./S/Laguna Niguel, Calif.) - UCSC
# 18 Darren Tsai (Sr./Libero/Huntingdon Beach, Calif.) -
UCSC
# 19 Jake Dietrich (Sr./OH/Saugus, Calif.) - UCSC
# 1 Randy Hansen (Sr/OH/Oak Lawn, Ill.) - Carthage#
# 7 Connor Wexter (So./S/New Lenox, Ill.) - Carthage#
# 15 Matt Yanz (Sr./MB/Bolingbrook, Ill.) - Carthage#
# 10 Cameron Andrew (Jr./OH/Dallas, Texas) -
Juniata
-C V C-
