BEAVER FALLS, Pa. – The Geneva College men's volleyball team swept Saint Vincent on Wednesday night in its final tune-up before the Allegheny Mountain Collegiate Conference (AMCC) schedule officially begins on Saturday. The final score of the match was 25-14, 25-10, 25-21. Despite both teams being in the AMCC conference, this match did not count in the conference standings. Geneva improved to 4-5, while Saint Vincent fell to 0-1 in the first match of its season.
Geneva opened the match with back-to-back kills from junior
Peter Barbato (Beaver Falls, Pa./Beaver County Christian) and freshman
Carter Milroy (Colorado Springs, Colo./TCA College Pathways). The Bearcats would hang close early, pulling to within one point multiple times. Geneva put the set away, though, midway through the set. The Golden Tornadoes scored nine straight points behind the service of sophomore
Curtis Thomas (Arlington Heights, Ill./Christian Heritage Academy) and the attack of Milroy, who added four kills in the stretch, to go ahead 18-9. Geneva finished off the set on two kills by sophomore
Byron Spear (Pittsburgh, Pa./North Hills) sandwiched around another kill from Barbato, 25-14. Geneva hit .367 in the set, while Milroy contributed six kills.
Barbato had two kills, Spear had one and senior
Dan Townsend (Beaver Falls, Pa./Beaver County Christian) added another kill early in set two to help Geneva take an 8-3 lead. A moment later Barbato had two more kills in a stretch of six straight behind the service of Spear to extend the Golden Tornado lead to 15-5. Geneva then finished off the set with five straight points behind kills from Townsend, Barbato, Spear and Thomas, 25-10. The Golden Tornadoes hit .545 in the set.
The big wins in the first two sets allowed Head Coach
Curt Conser to sub more freely in the third set. Geneva jumped out to a 7-4 lead after an ace from freshman
Emerson Spear (Pittsburgh, Pa./North Hills), but the Bearcats hung close for most of the set. Saint Vincent tied the score twice, the last time at 12-12, before three straight points, the final on a kill from Townsend, pushed Geneva ahead 15-12. The Bearcats never got closer than two points the rest of the way, and senior
Matthew Slater (Butler, Pa./Butler) finished the match off with a kill, 25-21.
Geneva again got a balanced attack in the victory. Barbato finished with 13 kills, Townsend 11 kills and Milroy seven kills. Sophomore
Jake Williams (North Huntingdon, Pa./Norwin) had a team-high 14 digs, while Townsend added 11 digs. Thomas led the offense with 22 assists, while Slater added 10 assists in the third set. As a team Geneva hit .363, while Saint Vincent finished at just .012.
"We did what we needed to do today to pick up the win," said Conser. "Saint Vincent is a young program, and this was their first match this season, so they'll improve as the season goes along. I thought we played under control, and Dan and Peter really played well on the left side. We still had too many service errors, and we had some other things we need to do better, but overall it was a solid performance for our team as we prepare for AMCC play to begin."
Geneva opens AMCC action on Saturday with a match at Hilbert at 2:00 p.m. The Golden Tornadoes will return home next Wednesday for a match against Penn State Altoona at 7:00 p.m.
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.
