HIRAM, Ohio – Junior Anthony Baronio (Ambridge, Pa./Ambridge) just finished off a week in which he received two weekly awards for his play, and the junior continued his strong performance on the court on Wednesday night as he helped lead the Geneva College men's volleyball team to a victory at Hiram, 3-1 (22-25, 25-12, 25-19, 25-21).  The win was the fifth straight for the Golden Tornadoes and moved their overall record to 14-6, 3-0 in the Allegheny Mountain Collegiate Conference (AMCC), while Hiram fell to 7-6 overall, 2-3 in the AMCC.

Hiram came into Wednesday night's match also playing well, as the Terriers had won four in a row as well, including two impressive AMCC wins over Penn State Altoona and Wittenberg.  The Terriers used a 6-2 run early in the first set to take a 12-9 lead, and a couple minutes later Hiram put together a 5-1 run to take a 20-14 lead.  Baronio picked up a kill and an ace in four-point run for Geneva that pulled the Golden Tornadoes to within 21-19, but a couple of service errors prevented Geneva from getting any closer and Hiram pulled out the first set, 25-22.

Geneva scored five straight points early in the second set, with Baronio adding two aces in the run, to take an early 9-3 lead.  After a Hiram point, Geneva scored four more straight points to open up a commanding 13-4 lead, with senior Quinn McCracken (Beaver Falls, Pa./Beaver County Christian) finishing off the stretch with a kill.  The Golden Tornadoes continued their dominance with five more straight points a minute later behind the serving of freshman Curtis Thomas (Arlington Heights, Ill./Christian Heritage Academy) to go up 19-6, and Baronio finished off the set with a kill, 25-12, to even the match at one set apiece.

Baronio opened the third set with four kills and an ace to give Geneva an early 6-4 lead.  Neither team could gain much of a margin, though, as the set went back-and-forth over the next several minutes.  However, with the Golden Tornadoes clinging to a 17-16 lead, freshman Byron Spear (Pittsburgh, Pa./North Hills) started a four-point Geneva run with a kill, which was finished off by an ace from Thomas, giving the Golden Tornadoes a 21-16 lead, and Baronio and McCracken finished off the set with back-to-back kills, 25-19.

Junior Dan Townsend (Beaver Falls, Pa./Beaver County Christian) helped serve Geneva to the first three points of the fourth set, with Townsend picking up an ace along with another kill from Baronio.  Hiram answered right back, though, to take a 5-4 lead.  McCracken responded with back-to-back kills to begin a 6-1 run for the Golden Tornadoes, giving Geneva a 10-6 lead.  The Golden Tornadoes couldn't shake the Terriers, though, who managed to stay within a point, 18-17, late in the set.  However, two kills from Townsend and a kill from Spear gave Geneva a 21-17 lead, and the Golden Tornadoes closed out the match, 25-21, on a service error by Hiram.

Baronio finished with a season-high 20 kills on a .316 hitting percentage, while also adding 21 assists and five aces.  McCracken added 13 kills for the Golden Tornadoes.  Sophomore Peter Barbato (Beaver Falls, Pa./Beaver County Christian) contributed eight kills on .353 hitting percentage, while Townsend finished with five kills and a team-high 15 digs.  Spear also added five kills on a .417 hitting percentage.  Thomas finished with a team-high 26 assists.  As a team Geneva hit .207 compared to just .075 for Hiram.  The Golden Tornadoes also picked up ten service aces.

"It's always good to go on the road and pick up a conference win," said Head Coach Curt Conser.  "We had some guys that individually played really well at times, especially Anthony who hit terrifically most of the night.  However, we're still not playing with the consistency we need to and that I know we are capable of playing with.  We again struggled with our play early in the match, which is a recent trend.  We also made too many hitting errors throughout the night, despite some nice performances by some folks.   I'm obviously pleased to pick up the win, but I still feel like there's another level we can get to, and to do that we have to play smarter at times and avoid the hitting errors we seem prone to for certain stretches."

Geneva has a big day coming up on Saturday.  The Golden Tornadoes will host an AMCC quad match with Hiram, Penn State Behrend and Thiel.  Geneva will play Penn State Behrend at 10:00 a.m. and Thiel at approximately 4:00 p.m.  Penn State Behrend is currently tied with Geneva in first place in the AMCC with a 3-0 record, while Thiel won the AMCC conference tournament last season.


Geneva College is a Christ-centered academic community that provides a comprehensive education to equip students for faithful and fruitful service to God and neighbor. Offering over 145 traditional undergraduate majors and programs, fully online Adult Degree Programs and high-demand graduate degrees, Geneva's programs are recognized for their high quality. Geneva is included on Kiplinger's Personal Finance's "2019 Best College Values" list and has one of the top undergraduate engineering programs in the nation, according to U.S. News and World Report. Adhering to the truth of Scripture, a Geneva education is grounded in God's Word as well as in a core curriculum designed to prepare students vocationally to think, write and communicate well in today's world.