Men's Volleyball | 1/15/2020 10:00:00 AM

PITTSFORD, N.Y. – The spring semester is underway at St. John Fisher College and the men's volleyball team is set to start its third campaign as a program this weekend. The 2020 schedule is filled with 27 regular season matches including 14 at home for the Cardinals. Fisher will host two tournaments throughout the season, the Cardinal Classic and the Fisher Invite while finishing up the year with its final six matches all being played at the Manning and Napier Varsity Gym. 
 
The Cardinals made an eight-win improvement from their first to their second season as a program in 2019, finishing with a record of 21-13 while earning a bid into the United Volleyball Conference postseason tournament for the first time. The third-seeded Cardinals were victorious in their first playoff match before falling to SUNY New Paltz in the semifinals, three sets-to-one. New Paltz would go on to win the conference title and the NCAA Division III National Championship. 
 
Fisher's roster is well-balanced with eight upperclassmen and eight underclassmen. Josh Bigford comes off his UVC Rookie of the Year and First Team all-conference campaign last year after leading the Cardinals and the conference with 421 kills. Paul Hackford returns after earning the most assists for the team in each of the last two seasons while David Cerqua, who led the UVC and posted over 300 digs in both 2018 and 2019, is set to be Fisher's top libero once again while Ivan Lopez will patrol the net after coming away with a conference-leading 138.0 blocks.
 
Associate head coach Stephen England was named the UVC's Coach of the Year last season, the second time he had received the honor and first while at Fisher. England and Kelly Greapentrog will look to carry the success they had during the fall season with the women's volleyball team that saw the Cardinals capture their first-ever Empire 8 championship and first appearance into the National Tournament since 1998. With the program's aspirations growing, England is excited for the men's season to begin. 
 
"We have higher expectations going into year three of the program," England said. "We have made significant strides in putting together a very talented roster."
 
The roster includes a 2020 senior class of Matt Broderick and Justin Prichard while Cerqua, Hackford, Max Thurston, Brandon Cox-Bagley, Martin Hackford, Avery Terroso make up the junior class. Bigford leads the sophomore class of Lopez, Dylan Urbanski and Eric Bentivegna. 
 
There are four newcomers to the squad including Graham Brodsky, Matt Beiter, Ed Gosch and Matt Burney. England says he's proud of the way the freshman class have been adjusting to the college level.
 
"They are all working hard to learn how to play Fisher volleyball and making the changes necessary to be successful,"  commented England. 
 
In the UVC Preseason Coaches Poll, the Cardinals were picked to finish third out of the nine-team conference behind New Paltz and New York University. England expects some tough matchups in league action. 
 
"Every team has improved their roster from last year," England added. "New Paltz is coming off a National Championship, NYU returns everyone from last year and have brought in a good recruiting class. MIT and Vassar have also upgraded their rosters. It will be a great competition within our conference this year."
 
The Cardinals' schedule features seven teams ranked in the American Volleyball Coaches Association Division III Men's Top 15 Preseason Poll including three of the top four ranked teams. Fisher, meanwhile, is receiving votes in poll. England is fired up with the non-conference schedule that has been put together and sees a lot of teams that will challenge the squad. 
 
"Playing such good competition week in and week out will help us grow," stressed England. 
 
The season begins for Fisher with one of its home tourneys-the Cardinal Classic. Wells College, Johnson & Wales University and Elmira College come to town to take on the Cardinals on January 17th and 18th. The Cardinals plays Nationally-Ranked Wells in the season opener on Friday at 7 p.m. On Saturday, Fisher will face Johnson & Wales at 1 p.m. and then Elmira at 3 p.m. in a match that will be played as a non-conference game. 
 
The following weekend, Fisher will travel to SUNY Poly to go up against Alvernia University, Adrian College, John Jay College and Wentworth Institute of Technology. To wrap up play in January while kicking things off on the first day of February, the Cardinals head down to the Buffalo area to play Wittenberg University and Daemen College. 
 
Fisher will then return to Pittsford to host the Fisher Invite. On February 7th, the Cardinals play their first conference opponent in Bard College before facing University of California Santa Cruz, a team that made the National Semifinals and ranks second in the national preseason poll, at 8 p.m. On February 8th, Fisher hosts Thiel College and Geneva College to finish off the tournament. 
 
Next up on the docket will be three-straight road conference matches. The Cardinals head east to face Vassar College on February 21st and the Sage Colleges on Saturday February 22nd. A matchup at New York University on February 29th starts the team's spring break trip as they will go from the Big Apple up into Massachusetts to square off with Springfield College on March 3rd, Elms College on March 4th before ending the run of road games at Endicott College on March 7th. All four teams during the spring break road trip are ranked in the preseason national poll. 
 
The Cardinals stay within the town limits of Pittsford for their final eight matches. Fisher hosts Elmira on March 11th and then makes the short drive over to Nazareth College on March 18th. The Cardinals will host Thiel once again on March 20th before facing California Lutheran University. 
 
To wrap up conference play, Fisher will host MIT on March 27th and then the defending National Champion-New Paltz on Saturday March 28th at 11 a.m. The Cardinals will also host Daemen on the 28th for a 3 p.m. tilt. John Jay comes to campus on April 4th for the final regular season match. 
 
The top six teams in the conference will earn a berth in the UVC Postseason Tournament that is set to begin on Thursday, April 11th and run until Saturday, April 13th. The winner of the tournament will receive an automatic bid into the 2020 NCAA Division III Men's Volleyball Tournament. 
 
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