Men's Volleyball | 3/12/2022 9:24:00 PM
THOUSAND OAKS, Calif. – In the team's final day of competition at the Cal-lu-fornia Classic, the nationally-ranked St. John Fisher College men's volleyball team swept both matches against the University of California, Santa Cruz and Aurora University on Saturday inside Gilbert Arena. With the wins, Fisher, who is ranked 10th in the latest American Volleyball Coaches Association national poll, improves to 16-6 on the season.
No. 10 FISHER 3, UC-SANTA CRUZ 2
After swapping the first four sets, the Cardinals and Banana Slugs braced for a fifth frame. Both teams exchanged points in the early going before Santa Cruz jumped out to a 6-3 lead.
As the set wore on, Fisher turned a deficit into an advantage after rattling off a 4-1 run highlighted by a service ace from
Matt Beiter to make it 11-10 in the Cardinals' favor.
The lead would be short-lived, however, as the Slugs battled back with three unanswered points of their own to forge ahead, 13-10.
From there, neither team was able to create much breathing room as the set featured 10 ties before back-to-back kills from
Matt Cieplicki and
Josh Bigford proved to be the difference in a 24-22 win.
In all, Fisher had four players notch double-digit kills in the win led by Bigford who finished with 17 overall to go along with eight digs.
Jake Baker added 13 kills and six digs while Cieplicki hammered down 13 kills and was credited with three digs in all.
Griffin Stella produced 12 kills and had two blocks in the middle while
Paul Hackford handed out 44 assists to go along with nine digs, four blocks and two service aces.
No. 10 Fisher 2, Aurora 3
After swapping the first two sets, the Spartans were able to take set three 28-26, putting the Cardinals down 2-1 in the match. Fisher was able to open up set four on a 6-2 run behind kills from Beiter and
Zach Ciraolo, as well as blocks from Baker and Stella.
From there, Fisher was able to extend its lead to six after a service ace from Bigford and kill by Baker. The lead would then be cut to one after Aurora would find a 5-0 run following three attacking errors by the Cardinals.
As the set wore on, the points were back-and-forth until the Spartans earned a kill to take a 24-23 lead, only needing one point to claim the match.
With its back against the wall, Fisher would go to talented outside hitter Baker, to tie the match up as he found one of his 13 kills in the match.
Tied 24-24, Aurora put an offensive attack together, but Stella and Hackford produced an explosive block to take a one-point lead. A ball handling error by the Spartans pushed Fisher to take a 26-24 set win and tie the match at 2-2.
After winning a five-set match earlier in the day, the Cardinals were faced with the same challenge. With tired legs, the Cardinals kept the energy and quickly jumped out to an 8-4 lead following three-straight kills from the program's first 1,000 kill member, Bigford.
From there, the Spartans cut the Fisher lead to two with the hopes of stealing the set from the Cardinals.
The comeback was short lived after Fisher created a 6-0 run following a pair of points from Beiter and three-straight service aces from Baker.
Leading 14-6, the Cardinals once again looked to Bigford to finish the match off, as the brilliant outside hitter notched his 16th kill to win the set 15-6 and take the match 3-2.
Bigford led the way with a team-high 16 kills followed by Baker with 13, and Beiter with nine. Baker finished with five aces including three in set five, while Stella was a brick wall at the net, as the freshman tied his career-high with seven blocks. Setter Hackford assisted on 43 kills and tallied seven digs, while
David Cerqua found himself seven digs.
After returning home, the Cardinals will jump back into their United Volleyball Conference schedule at 7 p.m. on Wednesday when they travel to Elmira to take on the Soaring Eagles.
