ROANOKE, Va. – In its fifth straight Continental Volleyball Conference (CVC) match, the Southern Virginia University Men's Volleyball team (14-2, 7-1) defeated Roanoke College (7-14, 0-5) on the road Wednesday night, 3-0—its third straight sweep.
The Knights jumped out to an early lead after grabbing the match's first three points. The Maroons battled back, taking their first lead, 6-5, following an attacking error by Kristo Puente. The visitors, however, were quick to restore the advantage, tallying three straight points.
Despite not retaking the lead until three straight tallies made the score 19-18, Roanoke was never far behind. After overtaking Southern Virginia, two of the next three points created a two-point lead, forcing a timeout by Head Coach
Tom Peterson.
Following the timeout, the teams went back and forth over the next four points, with the Maroons inching closer to closing out the first set. The Knights, however, rattled off four straight tallies, led by two kills and a solo block by
Christian Sheaffer, to secure the first set.
The back-and-forth continued into the second set, with the teams splitting the first ten points. Three consecutive points by Southern Virginia forced a Roanoke timeout. The break, however, didn't stop the run, with the visitors stretching the lead to 12-5 after seven straight tallies.
Behind the home crowd's support, the Maroons wouldn't go down without a fight, cutting the deficit to four, 14-10. The Knights strung together three straight points to quiet the crowd and regain momentum. They carried that momentum through the rest of the set, going up 2-0 after a 25-17 set victory.
After struggling to find any rhythm hitting in the first two sets, Southern Virginia got hot in the third and final set. After going down 2-1 to start the set, the visitors tallied seven of the next nine points to take control of the set.
Jeremy Brown was vital in the set, leading all players with five kills. Back-to-back kills by the outside started a 5-0 run that was capped off by two service aces and a kill from
Christian Sheaffer.
The middles were also phenomenal in the set, with
Kristo Bianchin and
McKay Walker combining for four of the 11 kills.
Brown put together another 3-0 run, again recording back-to-back kills and finishing it off with a solo block, making the score 18-8.
A Roanoke timeout didn't do much to rally the team, with Southern Virginia using a 4-0 run to secure the match victory.
There was a great discrepancy between the team's serving, with the Knights recording ten service aces—led by
Christian Sheaffer, who tallied six—compared to just one for the Maroons. Even when the visitors didn't get an ace, the great serving made it difficult for Roanoke to get into any rhythm offensively.
Defensively, the Knights had four players register four or more digs, with
Justin Madsen leading all players with six.
On the other side of the ball, the Knights were extremely balanced, with
Jeremy Brown,
McKay Walker and
Christian Sheaffer tallying nine, eight and seven kills, respectively.
Southern Virginia returns to "The Barn" to take on Stevenson in a non-conference matchup on Friday, March 31.
To follow along with the match and for all the most up-to-date information regarding Southern Virginia University men's volleyball, visit knightathletics.com and follow @knightmvolleyball on Instagram.
