SPARKILL, NY – No. 1 St. Thomas Aquinas and No. 2 Roberts Wesleyan swept their opposition in Friday afternoon's ECC Men's Volleyball Championship Semifinals at the St. Thomas Aquinas Spartan Athletic Complex. The defending champion Spartans – who have not dropped an ECC set yet this season – will face the Redhawks – who will appear in their first ever ECC Final – on Saturday afternoon at 2:00 PM.
The match will be streamed live and free of charge on the ECC Sports Network with Marc Ernay on the call.
NO. 1 ST. THOMAS AQUINAS d. NO. 4 AMERICAN INTERNATIONAL, 3-0 (25-13, 25-14, 25-18)
BOX SCORE
Recap to follow, courtesy of St. Thomas Aquinas Sports Information
As a team, STAC recorded 38 kills compared to American International's 29. The Spartans also had 12 blocks and 35 assists, while the Yellow Jackets tallied 1 block and 26 assists.
St. Thomas Aquinas College outhit American International College by a .557 to .092 margin for the match. ECC Player of the Year Gabriel Vieira led the Spartans offense with a match-high 14 kills. He also had six digs, a solo block and four block assists. Marcus Franck tallied 31 set assists (10.33 assists/set). Franck also accumulated a kill, three service aces, four digs and two block assists for the maroon and gold.
ECC Preseason Player of the Year Kyran Versteegen registered 10 kills, an assist, a service ace, a dig and two block assists for the Spartans. Jannis Freude picked up eight kills, two digs and two block assists for STAC on Friday. David Weiss earned three kills, one assist, two digs and six block assists against the Yellow Jackets.
Raoul Kerkdijk recorded two kills, an assist, two digs, a solo block and four block assists on the afternoon. Ivaylo Todorov accumulated one assist and eight digs over three sets.
STAC has now recorded 11 sweeps in 24 total matches this season.
NO. 2 ROBERTS WESLEYAN d. NO. 3 DOMINICAN, 3-0 (25-16, 25-17, 25-20)
BOX SCORE
Recap courtesy of Roberts Wesleyan Sports Information
Paul Fillion led Roberts Wesleyan (11-17, 3-3 ECC) with 11 kills and an impressive .381 attack percentage while Griffin Monrad added 10 kills and a .368 attack percentage as the team combined to hit for a percentage of .282 in RWU's 3-0 win over Dominican on Friday afternoon.
ECC Setter of the Year Landon Brouwer handed out a match-high 33 assists and ECC Libero of the Year Moises Jimenez recorded half of Roberts Wesleyan's digs with nine of the 18 in the match.
The Dominican offense struggled with a .014 attack percentage with 23 kills and 22 attack errors and the Roberts Wesleyan defense posted a total of 8.5 blocks with three solo and 11 assists as Fillion led the team with two solo and three assisted blocks.