Men’s Volleyball Falls Short in CVC Championship

By Gabe Wagner

After an incredibly successful regular season, the Southern Virginia University men’s volleyball team currently holds a record of 18–3. With wins over nationally ranked teams like Juniata, Stevenson, Marymount and Messiah, the Knights were hopeful as they prepared for the conference tournament.

After remaining undefeated in conference, the Knights suffered a tough loss to Rutgers-Newark. With this loss, the Knights dropped their first place conference ranking and are currently ranked second. They prepare to travel back to Newark to find their way to a rematch against Rutgers-Newark in the conference championship.

The Knights sat at second place in the conference, having only recorded with their singular conference loss to Rutgers-Newark. Their first game took place on Friday the 8th at 7 pm against the winner of the quarterfinal game, Juniata college. The Knights fell in the first set 25–18, but came back in the second set winning 33–31 and then swept the last two sets 25–18. Nahuel Recabarren and Paul Candland led the team in kills with 25 and 13 respectively.

On April 9, the team prepared to play Rutgers-Newark in the conference championship. The Knights came close in the first two sets losing 25–22 and 25–17 but they rallied back and won the third set 22–25 but they fell short in the fourth as they lost 25–17. Following the loss, Paul and Nahuel were both named to the Continental Volleyball Conference all tournament team.

As the conference play finished, the Knights ended with 4 players being named to the all conference team. Nahuel Recabarren and Kaipo Tagaloa being named to the first team, McKay Walker being named to the second team and Paul Candland being named to the third team.

The Knights season was not over as they prepared for the National Championship, which began on Friday, April 15. The 7th seeded Knights prepared to take on the 10th seed, St. Joseph (L.I).