ASHLAND, Va. – North Park men's volleyball stepped out of conference on Friday afternoon to pick up a pair of wins in Virginia. The Vikings beat the Averett Cougars and Virginia Wesleyan Marlins in three and five sets, respectively. Additionally, Michael Sopocy reached 50 wins as the Vikings' head men's volleyball coach.
Match 1: North Park 3, Averett 0 (25-14, 25-15, 25-12)
North Park made quick work of the Averett Cougars in their first match of their 2024 spring break trip to the east coast on Friday afternoon.
NPU's service game and potent offense were on display in the opening match. The Vikings aced the Cougars eight times while piling on 39 kills and as many assists. Senior setter Teddy Gedville had 18 assists while junior setter Liam Miller wasn't far behind at 17. The ace parade was led by freshman outside hitter Gerald Malana with three and junior outside hitter Vicente Cabrera followed with a pair.
North Park boasted a .373 hitting percentage in the three-set win while forcing the Cougars to hit below .000 at -.034. North Park surrendered just 15 kills to Averett en route to a quick, sweeping victory.
Match 2: North Park 3, Virginia Wesleyan 2 (18-25, 25-20, 25-18, 23-25, 15-10)
North Park took on host Virginia Wesleyan in match two, a contest much different than the first.
The Vikings went down 2-1 in the opening set and, despite one-point gaps a few times in the set, never managed to tie it up. Needing to play catch up, North Park dropped set one 25-18.
North Park answered back and then some in the second set, hitting a match-best .560 with 17 kills. This time, the Vikings would pull ahead 6-5 off kills from junior outside hitter Ty Ingrao and Cabrera and keep the lead until their 25th point. North Park claimed five of the final six points via kill, including one from sophomore Pablo Ocasio, to tie things up with a 25-0 win.
The third set was a similar pace to the second. The Marlins managed a respectable .290 hitting percentage with 14 kills but North Park was still on fire, posting a .440 mark with 14 kills and just three errors to win 25-18, looking for the four-set win.
However, the Marlins would steal one away in the fourth, posting their best kills total of the night at 16 while slowing the Vikings down to a .188 mark with eight errors.
In the decider, North Park jumped out to a big 6-1 lead after kills from senior middle blocker Parker Payne and Gedville, followed by blocks from Gedville and Robinson. An ace for Payne, kill for Ingrao, and block by Robinson pushed the Vikings ahead early, but Virginia Wesleyan crawled back within two (7-5) after a few Viking errors. However, North Park registered six of their next eight points via kill to secure a five-set win, 15-10.
Ingrao had 21 kills in the match to lead the way for NPU, followed by 10 each from Payne and Cabrera. Robinson had an emphatic seven blocks as Cabrera and Ocasio added three each. Gedville set up the action with 37 assists while Miller added 21.
North Park (6-15) stays in Virginia but heads to the campus of Randolph-Macon College for a pair of contests with Roanoke and Randolph-Macon. First serve against the Maroons is set for 2:00 PM ET before playing the host Yellow Jackets at 4:00 PM ET.
