DALLAS, PA – The 15
th-ranked Nazareth men's volleyball team is off to its best start since 2015, winning a pair of three set matches over Baldwin Wallace and Emmanuel at the Misericordia Invitational on Saturday to move to 10-0 on the season. Nazareth began the season in 2015 with 11-straight wins. 2015 also marked the last time the Golden Flyers played in the NCAA tournament.
For the second consecutive week,
Owen Wickens was named the tournament MVP.
3-0 vs Baldwin-Wallace, 25-18, 31-29, 25-17
Nazareth won the first and the third sets comfortably.
The most thrilling set was the second, where Nazareth was able to win 31-29. The Golden Flyers had a chance to close out the set at 24-21, however, Baldwin-Wallace registered the next three points to lengthen the set.
Owen Wickens had a kill, followed by a block from
Andrew Bodensteiner and
Max Stuver to close out the set. Bodensteiner led the Flyers with four blocks and also put down five kills on a .625 hitting percentage. Stuver had 30 assists and eight digs in the match.
Wickens led the way with 11 kills, along with three blocks and five digs.
Alex Bertino was tabbed with nine kills on 20 attempts (.250).
After hitting .370 in the opening set, Nazareth finished the match swinging .231 with 38 kills on 91 attempts with 17 errors.
3-0 vs Emmanuel, 25-12, 25-18, 25-19
Nazareth hit .462 in the match with 38 kills on 65 attempts with eight errors to cruise to a three-set victory. With the loss, Emmanuel is now 4-4 on the season.
It was a dominant effort from start to finish.
Wickens paced Nazareth with 12 kills on a .529 hitting percentage and had three service aces and six digs.
Stuver had his second consecutive game with over 30 kills, finishing with 34. Bertino was efficient once again with seven kills on a .778 percentage.
Bodensteiner contributed six kills on nine attempts and two blocks.
Nazareth will be off next weekend, returning to action on February 10 when it hosts SUNY Potsdam at 4 p.m.
