SPRINGFIELD, Ohio – The Thiel College men's volleyball team defeated Geneva College 3-2 in the semifinals of the Allegheny Mountain Collegiate Conference (AMCC) men's volleyball championship tournament on Friday night.
 
The third-seeded Tomcats dropped the first set to the second-seeded Golden Tornadoes 25-21 before taking set two 25-19 to even the match at 1-1.
 
Geneva grabbed the third set decisively 25-11 to put Thiel on the brink of elimination.
 
Thiel won a back and forth fourth set 32-30 to push the match to five sets.
 
In the fifth, The Tomcats edged out the Golden Tornadoes to take the set 16-14 and the match 3-2.
 
Three Tomcats collected double-digit kills as Jacob DeRue (Fairport, N.Y./Fairport) (16), Chance Hoffman (Cochranton, Pa./Cochranton) (15), and Mitch Patterson (Canonsburg, Pa./Canon-McMillan) (10) led Thiel's offense.
 
Stephen Borgen (Pittsburgh, Pa./Shaler Area) dished out 48 assists and 14 digs, while Ryan Sumarsono (Victor, N.Y./Victor) added 26 digs in the five-set victory.

Thiel in their inaugural season in the AMCC has reached their first conference championship game in program history. 
 
With the win, Thiel moves on to the AMCC Championship finals and will take on the first-seeded Tigers of Wittenberg University. First serve for tomorrow's championship match is set for 3 p.m.