Knights Repeat as CVC Champions

Knights Repeat as CVC Champions
Posted: Apr 12, 2025

Southern Virginia University defended its CVC title by defeating Juniata College 3-0 on Saturday, completing back-to-back championship runs. It marks the third time in conference history a school has repeated as conference champion with this being the second time the Knights have accomplished the feat, following the 2019 and 2021 seasons (no tournament was played in 2020).

Playing in front of a home crowd the Knights took control of the match early with a 4-1 lead. The Knights maintained that lead throughout the set, never allowing Juniata to get any closer than three points before closing them out for a 25-17 set win. 

Juniata grabbed a 9-8 lead in the second set but an attack error tied the game up and gave the Knights the serve, promptly rolling off five straight points; all coming on errors by the Eagles. The Knights took that momentum to close out the set for a 25-19 win, ending it with a kill by Kyler Evans. 

The third set saw Juniata push to extend the match, holding a late lead before Southern Virginia was able to secure championship point. The Knights held a five-point lead at 13-8 lead when the Eagles started chipping away, drawing even at 21 after a Knight error. The Eagles took a lead on a kill from Luke Hoffman but the two teams traded points over the next six rallies. Southern Virginia broke the pattern when they took advantage of an Eagle attack error and closed the match out on a Samuel Candland kill. 

Southern Virginia hit .297 in the match compared to Juniata's .099 team percentage and recorded 10 blocks. The Knights Christian Sheaffer led all players with 15 kills and was named the tournament's Most Outstanding Player. His teammates Jeremy Brown and Gehrig Tolman were also named to the All-Tournament team. 

Also being named to the All-Tournament team were Juniata's Luke Hoffman and Tyler Phillips, Drew University's Ephraim Smith, Kean University's Chris Mitchell, Marymount University's Esteban Jauregui, and Rutgers University-Newark's Derek Au.

With the win, the Knights improve to 31-1 overall and clinch an automatic bid into the NCAA Tournament to be held next week. The selection show will air on Monday, April 14th, at 10:00 AM on ncaa.com.