GREENVILLE, Pa. (April 12) -- The Thiel College Men's Volleyball team won the inaugural Presidents' Athletic Conference (PAC) Championship Tournament and booked their ticket to the NCAA Tournament for the first time in program history with a resounding sweep of No. 2 Grove City College Saturday evening in front of a capacity crowd inside Maenpa Court at Beeghly Gymnasium.
The Tomcats conclude the regular season with a program-record 22 wins and enter the NCAA Tournament on a 15-match winning streak following there 25-20, 25-17, 25-16 sweep. The Blue and Gold also finish the season 9-0 on Maenpa Court. The Wolverines finish their first varsity season 14-15.
The opening set was close early as neither side held a lead greater than 2 until the Tomcats rattled off back-to-back points to pull ahead 20-17. The Wolverines answered with 2 straight to make it 20-19. Kills by
Jake Dies (Cambridge Springs, Pa./Cambridge Springs) and
Ezra Oesterling (Shelocta, Pa./West Shamokin) followed by consecutive
Kaleb Proudfoot (Butler, Pa./Butler) kills made it 24-19 Tomcats. One more Proudfoot kill gave the Tomcats set one.
Oesterling clubbed a match-best 16 kills on a staggering .652 from the left pin. With his kill in the early stages of set three, he became the second Tomcat in program history to eclipse 400 kills in a season, joining Dante McCoy '13, who did so twice. Oesterling added a team-best six digs and a pair of aces en route to being named to the All-Tournament Team.
Proudfoot posted 10 kills and hit .563 with a trio of blocks. He was also named to the All-Tournament Team. Dies logged eight kills on .438 and blocked a match-best four balls as he was named the tournaments Most Outstanding Player in addition to making the All-Tournament Team.
The Blue and Gold opened with a 5-1 run in set two and pushed the lead to 10-4 as
Ben Lowell (Portland, Ore./Sunset) connected on a dump. Grove City got within 4 at 16-12, but Thiel answered with a 5-1 run capped with a Lowell solo stuff. Thiel ended the set with a 3-1 run on an Oesterling kill to go up 2-0.
Lowell dished out a match-best 35 assists with four digs and two blocks.
The Tomcats jumped to an 8-2 set-three lead with
Bryce Lizanich (Coraopolis, Pa./Montour) at the service line. Lizanich had an ace in the stretch. A
Will Zimmerman (Cranberry, Pa./Seneca Valley) solo stuff gave Thiel an 18-12 advantage. A 3-0 run culminating in a Dies-Lizanich monster block pushed the lead to 23-15. An Oesterling kill gave Thiel eight championship-point tries at 24-16. Following a long rally, a Lizanich solo stuff sealed the sweep and the PAC Championship for the Tomcats.
Lizanich finished with four kills, four blocks and two aces. Zimmerman added five kills, four digs and an ace and block each.
The Blue and Gold hit .419 and held the Wolverines to .193. Thiel held a 28-25 edge in digs as
David Gonzalez (El Paso, Texas/Eastwood) added four from the libero spot.
Thiel will find out its NCAA Tournament destiny Monday morning during the NCAA Selection show which will take place at 10. A link to watch the reveal will be posted on the Thiel social media accounts.
