BETHANY, W.Va. - While many of the Bethany Bison on campus were traveling to compete in their respective sports on this wintery Saturday, Hummel Field House was home to a volleyball tri-meet. Bethany invited the Roanoke College Maroons and the Penn-State Altoona Nittany Lions for competition. Bethany went 0-2 on the day, although they showed improvements that nearly netted their first victorious set of the season.
Roanoke 3, Bethany 0 (25-21, 25-17, 25-8)
Penn State-Altoona 3, Bethany 0 (25-4, 25-11, 25-14
- Bethany's first opponent of the day was Roanoke. The Maroons' setter CJ Kingston caught fire on the serve aiding Roanoke to a quick 11-4 first set lead.
- After a slow start, the Bison played sound volleyball cutting the Maroon lead to 14-12. Bethany was able to find some holes over the leaping Roanoke blockers forcing errors.
- The Bison began to build a load of confidence as the set went on. They tied the game at 19, then tied it again at 20, and once more at 21 with a kill from McKay Ginez.
- Unfortunately for the Bison, Roanoke's Davin Stevenson got in a groove from the serving line serving three consecutive points (two aces) without the ball returning over the net to ice the first set 25-21 Roanoke.
- The second set was a similar path to defeat. The Bison were down 17-9 when Ginez went on a five-point run. A perfect set to Rylan Trapp for a kill earned Ginez the serve where he slammed three aces in four points to bring the lead within three.
- The Maroons fixed their mistakes and that was the last time Bethany held the momentum. They dropped the second (25-17) and third set (25-8).
- Penn State-Altoona controlled their entire match against the Bison with a quick 3-set victory.
- Ginez was the team's kill leader with seven total kills in the Bison's second match of the day helping his team out swatting PSU-Altoona in third set kills 7-5.
- McKay Ginez lead the team with 14 total points on 10 kills and three service aces.
- Ginez also led the team in digs (10).
- Leonardo Locatelli led the team in kill percentage despite being the team's primary setter. He had a few sneaky overpass kills to end the day hitting .500.
The Bison will host Geneva on Wednesday, Feb. 21 inside Hummel Field House at 7 pm.
