King, North Greenville Advance to Conference Carolinas Men’s Volleyball Championship Final
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BRISTOL, Tenn.– Top seed North Greenville and third-seeded King both advanced to the final of the 2023 Conference Carolinas Men’s Volleyball Championship with semifinal victories on Friday, April 21 inside the Student Center Complex on the campus of King.
In the first semifinal, it was top-seeded North Greenville who advanced to the program’s second straight tournament final with a sweep of fourth-seeded Belmont Abbey, 25-23, 25-22, 25-21. The Tigerville, South Carolina program hit an impressive .314 in the match while limiting The Abbey to a .183 mark. North Greenville raced out to a 5-0 lead and led 8-5 before a 7-2 run by Belmont Abbey gave them a 12-10 advantage. NGU responded with a 10-3 run to go ahead 20-13 only to see the Belmont, North Carolina program battle back to tie the game at 22. North Greenville, led by two kills from Diego Rosich, scored three of the final four points for the 25-23 win. It was another back-and-forth affair in set two as the teams tied 12 different times before North Grenville broke a 20–20 tie with three straight points and won five of seven for the 25-22 win. There were eight ties in the first 12 points of the final set, but NGU used an 11-1 run to turn a 12-10 deficit into a 21-13 lead and withstood a late run by BAC for the 25-21 match win.
Diego Rosich led all players with 18 kills for North Greenville and hit .464 while also leading the team with 12 digs. Jacob Brown added 10 kills and hit .450 while Jorge Riesgo tallied 38 assists for NGU. Belmont Abbey was led by Matteo Miselli who tallied 16 kills while Ethan Rehmann led all players with four blocks in the loss.
In the second semifinal, No. 3 seed King upset second-seeded Erskine 25-17, 25-21, 25-21 to advance to the program’s fourth championship final. The Tornado outhit Erskine .310-.143 with 33 assists to 26 for the Flying Fleet. The host Tornado used a 6-1 run to storm out to a 6-3 lead and never trailed the rest of the set in an impressive 25-17 victory. In set two, neither team had more than a three-point rally and Erskine led early, but King broke a tie at 10 with three straight points, including a pair of Kellan Kennedy service aces, and never looked back en route to a 25-21 set win and a 2-0 lead. The Flying Fleet found an offensive rhythm in set three as they flew out to a 5-2 lead before King used a 7-1 run to take an 11-8 advantage. King pushed the lead to five, 15-10, before Erskine tied the game at 17 with a 17-2 run. After both teams scored an 18th point, the home team scored seven of the final 10 points for the 25-21 set win and the match sweep.
Warren Davis finished with a match-high 15 kills and hit .387 while Jack Sarnowski dished out 32 assists for the Tornado and Justin Sawyer had a team-best seven digs. Conference Carolinas Offensive Player of the Year, Kacper Rybarczyk, led Erskine with nine kills while Francisco Pomar tallied 22 assists and a match-high 10 digs.
North Greenville and King will meet in the title game at 6:30 p.m. on Saturday, April 22. Fans can watch every game of the tournament live via the Conference Carolinas Digital Network and BlueFrame at conferencecarolinasdn.com. Information regarding the championship schedule, bracket and the Student Center Complex are available
here.
2023 Conference Carolinas Men’s Volleyball Championship
Quarterfinals – Tuesday, April 18
#3 King def. #6 Mount Olive, 3-2 (Box Score)
#4 Belmont Abbey def. #5 Lees-McRae, 3-0 (Box Score)
Semifinals – Friday, April 21 (King University, Bristol, Tenn.)
#1 North Greenville def. #4 Belmont Abbey, 3-0 (Box Score)
#3 King def. #2 Erskine, 3-0 (Box Score)
Final – Saturday, April 22 (King University, Bristol, Tenn.)
#1 North Greenville vs. #3 King, 6:30 p.m.