GREENVILLE, Pa. – The Geneva College men's volleyball team made quick work of the Thiel Tomcats on Thursday night, getting back into the win column with a road sweep by the score of 25-11, 25-11, 26-24.  Geneva improved to 2-3 overall, while Thiel dropped to 0-1.  While both teams are in the Allegheny Mountain Collegiate Conference, this match did not count in the conference standings.

Geneva came into the match having already played four matches against high-level competition so far this season.  Thiel came into the night yet to play a match this year, and the Tomcats entered with a new coach and only seven players suited up.  With that as the backdrop, the Geneva starters proved too much for Thiel on this night.

Thiel opened the match with a point, and then Geneva reeled off five straight points, with junior Peter Barbato (Beaver Falls, Pa./Beaver County Christian) picking up four kills in the stretch.  Barbato added two more kills over the next few minutes, and the set was never in doubt.  The Golden Tornadoes scored six straight, four on Thiel attack errors, to take a 19-6 lead, and Geneva finished off the set 25-11.

The second set brought more of the same.  The Tomcats scored the opening point, and then it was all Geneva from there.  Barbato had two aces and sophomore Byron Spear (Pittsburgh, Pa./North Hills) added a kill to give the Golden Tornadoes a quick 6-2 advantage.  A moment later, back-to-back kills from Spear and Barbato, followed by a Spear ace, extended Geneva's lead to 13-6.  Thiel closed to within 17-12, but Barbato strung together three straight aces after a kill from sophomore Jake Williams (North Huntingdon, Pa./Norwin), giving Geneva 23-10 lead, and sophomore Devin Goodgasell (Kittaning, Pa./Armstrong) finished off the set with a kill, 25-11.

The third set allowed Head Coach Curt Conser to play a number of his reserves who hadn't had much opportunity to play yet this season, due to Geneva's tough non-conference schedule early in the year.  That allowed Thiel to hang around in the set.  Kills early in the set by senior Dan Townsend (Beaver Falls, Pa./Beaver County Christian), freshmen Emerson Spear (Pittsburgh, Pa./North Hills) and Carter Milroy (Colorado Springs, Colo./TCA College Pathways), along with another from Goodgasell, gave Geneva an early 9-5 lead.  Thiel reeled off a 9-1 run over the next few minutes, helped by some poor ball control from Geneva, to take a 14-10 lead.  The Golden Tornadoes slowly chipped away at the lead, and Conser relied on his veterans to close out the set, and the match, 26-24.  Williams had two kills late, and Townsend added three more kills, including the match winner.

Barbato finished the match with 12 kills, six digs and three aces to lead the Geneva offense.  Williams added seven kills, while Townsend finished with five kills and nine digs.  Sophomore Curtis Thomas (Arlington Heights, Ill./Christian Heritage Academy) contributed 21 assists and eight digs.  As a team, Geneva hit .264, while Thiel finished with a negative .083 hitting percentage.

"Thiel's obviously in a rebuilding mode this season," said Coach Conser.  "Coach Lasher is a good coach, but he took over the position late.  This was their first match, and he'll get the program turned around.  As far as our team, Peter and Jake swung it pretty well tonight.  This was a chance to get a lot of our reserves some game action after working hard in practice over the last couple months.  We got a little sloppy in the third set as I experimented with some lineups, but overall this was a solid match to get us back into the win column."

The Golden Tornadoes return to action next Wednesday with a road match at Mount Union at 7:00 p.m.  Mount Union knocked off the Golden Tornadoes in five sets earlier this season in Metheny Fieldhouse.


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.