Wilkes Men's Volleyball Sweeps Drew
WILKES-BARRE – The Wilkes University men's volleyball team returned home to the Marts Center as they swept Drew University 3-0 in non-conference action on Thursday night. The Colonels won all three sets 25-16, 25-14, 25-20.
Wilkes improved to 12-4 on the year, continuing their best season so far in program's history. The Rangers fall to 6-8 on the year.
The first set began quick for Wilkes, earning nine of the first 13 points as Lucas Mages (Buffalo, NY/Iroquois Central), Paul Binner (Tunkhannock, PA/Tunkhannock), and Noah Taylor (Lumberton, NJ/Rancocas Valley Regional) earned kills during that run to give the Colonels a 9-4 lead. The Rangers would get as close as two points with C.J. Addeo and Furat Alhayek kills, but Wilkes would get five straight points to get ahead 19-14. The Colonels would get six of the last 10 points off three kills by Jackson Shafer (Milford, PA/Delaware Valley) to give Wilkes a 25-16 victory in the first set.
Wilkes had a .333 hitting percentage while the Rangers only had a .067 hitting percentage.
The second set began in similar fashion, as Taylor had two kills and a service ace as Wilkes went ahead 7-1 over Drew. The Rangers would push to get as close as four points to Wilkes, but the Colonels had blocks from Binner and Shay while Shafer and L. Mages had service aces to build the lead up 19-9. Binner and Shay continued to keep going ahead of Drew, with Jacob Mages (Buffalo, NY/Iroquois Central) earning the final kill as Wilkes earned a 25-14 win in the second set and go up 2-0 in the series.
Wilkes had a .765 hitting percentage in the second set while Drew finished with a .148 hitting percentage.
The third set began with the Rangers going out to a 5-1 lead as Jacob Sledz and C.J. Addeo had kills for Drew. The Colonels would get the third set tied at 7-7 as Shay, Shafer, and Binner had blocks for Wilkes. Binner added a kill and service ace while J. Mages and Shay had a block to get them ahead 14-9 in the third set. Drew would then get five of the next six points to tie the game at 15-15. Both teams would keep trading points, with Wilkes earning the advantage at 21-19 with Drew serving to try and get back into the game. Jacob Haller (Birdsboro, PA/Exeter Township) and Shafer would get kills as Shay had a service ace to give Wilkes four of the last five points to lift the Colonels 25-20 in the third set and give them the series victory.
Shafer led Wilkes with 13 kills, with Binner following behind with 10 kills and Taylor being third with seven. Shay had 36 assists on the night and five blocks while Taylor and L. Mages had seven digs apiece. Shafer had four service aces while Binner earned three blocks.
Wilkes will return home as they host a tri-match on Saturday when they welcome Neumann University and Elmira College. The Colonels will play the Knights at 11:00 a.m. while finishing the tri-match against the Soaring Eagles at 3:00 p.m.
