Liberty University Club Sports Athletics
Flames open fall season Saturday at tournament in Richmond
9/27/2016 12:00:00 AM | Men's Volleyball
Reloaded with a 20-man roster, Liberty University men's volleyball Head Coach Bryan Rigg will use this Saturday's Battle on Byrdhill, a 50-team open tournament hosted by VCU at the Richmond Volleyball Club, as a final tryout for the fall season.
"We've got a really good balance (of veterans and newcomers)," he said. "If anything, we're a little top heavy with young guys, which is good for the future of the program and we want to grow it. Everybody will get playing time and an opportunity to play for their position."
Three weeks of practices have helped Rigg determine which 10 players to keep on his Division I squad and which 10 (mostly freshmen and transfers) will start on the DII team for a fall schedule that includes a tournament at King's College (Oct. 29 in Bristol, Tenn.), the Michigan State Hardwood Classic (Nov. 4-6), and the Lancaster Bible (Pa.) Tournament (Nov. 18-19).
Junior outside hitters Eugenio "Gene" De Jesus, T.J. Forsythe, and Scott Zalizniak are three of the Flames' top returning offensive players, with DeJesus and Forsythe the team's most powerful hitters and Zalizniak one of Liberty's leaders in serve-receive and passing.
Rigg said two positions the Flames are especially deep at are setter, where they return all three from last season — sophomores Kaden Knepper, Eli Plasterer, and Alex Lower, who ended the year on DI after Knepper and Plasterer started there and dropped down to DII — and defensive specialists, with junior Sam Wyman and graduate David Hong back on the back row.
"With those two guys returning from the DI team, that's going to stabilize our defense," Rigg said. "To have that depth at the setter and libero position is going to be the cornerstone of what we do. Setters and liberos make the best coaches. They see the whole game and they don't get a lot of the glory but they're usually the brains behind the whole operation."
With the Flames running a 5-1 offense, Rigg will likely decide this weekend which setter stays as the starter on the DI team, which one will set for the DII squad, and which one may shift between setter, passer, and defensive specialist.
"The important thing is ‘Who can organize the team the best and who is the best leader on the court?' because the setter needs to be a lead communicator," Rigg said. "We're going to film every game on Saturday and we can tell pretty quickly who the other players follow."
Three sophomores — outside hitter Brady Quackenbush, middle blocker Jacob Holbert, and opposite hitter Andrew Eves — played on the DII team last season and appear ready to make the move to the DI squad with that unit thin at the middle blocker position.
Newcomers who show potential to lead the DII team and impact the DI squad in the near future include Nathan Jensen, a 6-foot, 8-inch-tall middle hitter; Gabriel Jackson, a freshman outside hitter whose family has lived in Mesopotamia in recent years; Sam Hess, a freshman outside hitter from near Philadelphia; and Daniel Kolaff, a left-handed opposite hitter from Ohio.
"Daniel's really stood out," Rigg said. "Over the first few weeks of practice, he's had the best passing numbers and has led team in kills. opposite hitter will have a huge impact over the next few years. For those guys, the future is promising."
Rigg is optimistic his teams can place in the top five of the A and B brackets at this weekend's event, which will include East Coast Volleyball Association (ECVA) South Division rivals Virginia, Virginia Tech, William & Mary, Richmond, and the host Rams as well as ECVA North Division power Maryland, and several 30-and-under club teams.
"We typically only play college teams, but Richmond has a lot of USA Volleyball teams that play regionally and there will be at least one representative from Washington, D.C., and one from the Tidewater area, so it will be a little bit of a different atmosphere," Rigg said. "It's definitely realistic to think we could take top-five in both brackets. We're aiming to win it all."
By Ted Allen/Staff Writer
