Liberty University Club Sports
Liberty Tournament
Flames’ alumni squad spikes Virginia Tech in A bracket final, B team finishes runner-up to JMU
11/13/2022 10:38:41 PM | Men's Volleyball
Liberty University’s men’s volleyball team concluded fall semester competition Saturday as it welcomed fellow East Coast Volleyball Association (ECVA) programs to the LaHaye Multipurpose Center for a final tournament, the Liberty Open, before the regular season begins in late January.
Split into three squads, Liberty entered an A team, a B team, and an alumni squad, with each playing two sets against three other teams in their respective pools to jostle for playoff position later that day. The Flames’ alumni squad, which featured several players from last season’s lineup that advanced to the National Collegiate Volleyball Federation (NCVF) Division I National Championship semifinals in Phoenix, eventually swept Virginia Tech’s A team, which was the runner-up at nationals, in the A bracket championship final.
Liberty’s A team opened with close sets against North Carolina State, winning the first, 27-25, and losing the second, 22-25. The team next swept VCU, 25-20, 25-16, before splitting sets against the University of Virginia, 25-17, 18-25. That pool play performance set up a showdown with Virginia Tech — last spring’s runner-up — in the quarterfinals. The Hokies staged a 25-21, 25-22 sweep on the Flames’ home court, ending Liberty’s day.
(Previously, at last month's Virginia Tech Fall Tournament, the Flames’ A and B teams were ousted in the open bracket semifinals and quarterfinals, respectively, by the a Hokies alumni squad.)
On Saturday, senior Tyler Wemple led the A team with 26 kills on the day, out of a total of 88 for the entire squad, with senior setter Chase Keith distributing assisting 71 of those. Senior middle blocker John Sauder posted six blocks and Wemple and senior Matt Marcinko both served two aces.
Liberty’s B team began the day by sweeping the University of North Carolina, 25-14, 26-24, and splitting sets with Virginia Tech’s C team, 25-12, 25-27, as well as UVA, 25-23, 19-25. The Flames then defeated Virginia Tech’s B team, 25-21, 25-17, to advance to the championship round, where it lost to James Madison University’s B Team 25-21, 25-23.
Sophomore Bryce Weenick finished with 42 kills, over a third of Liberty’s B Team’s 124 total kills. Weenick also finished with a team high seven aces and 50 total points. Setter Greyson Jackson distributed 107 assists and fellow freshman Jayden Rice stuffed seven blocks.
Fall tournament play provides teams the opportunity to get first looks at their competition for the spring semester and to adjust to playing with each other, and gives the coaching staffs chances to experiment with combinations and solidify the lineups for each squad before A, B, and C team rosters for nationals must be finalized in February.
Flames Head Coach Kaleb VanDePerre chose to use this tournament to give his newcomers playing experience and develop the skill set of all of his players on each team.
“I think we’re both really scrappy and we’re young,” VanDePerre said referencing the A and B teams. “It was good seeing guys in new positions getting to play under some pressure. It was encouraging to see how long the points were going and how much grit we had. The big thing we’re taking away is we have to block a little better and we’ve got to put balls away. There were a lot of games where we had chances to put them away and just didn’t have that killer instinct.”
The Flames face a difficult transition of replacing last year’s senior class of 12, which featured current Liberty Assistant Head Coach Josh Knapp, a dominant right-side hitter for the past four seasons, outside hitter Cross Edwards, middle hitter Ben Dowd, and setter Tommy Speelman, among others, all of whom competed on Liberty’s alumni team. (Other members of the alumni squad included outside hitter Sean Taggart (’21), middle hitters Gene DeJesus Ramsey and Zach Martyn (’19), and libero David Hong (’17).)
“Our senior class this year has been behind that big senior class ahead of them, so they never necessarily had to lead the unit,” VanDePerre said. “A lot of them were our B team last year so the chemistry is there. They know each other well because they’ve been competing as the DII team and developing a little of the leadership skills amongst themselves, but now I think it’s been cool to see this semester.”
VanDePerre will depend heavily on these upperclassmen to help guide the 11 incoming freshmen.
“There’s some growing pains, but I think that for them it’s been, ‘OK, this is some of the stuff that our leaders did that we might not have thought about every day,’ so now they’re being thrust into that role and I think they’re doing a good job,” VanDePerre said.
After the first NCVF Division I, II, and III rankings are released in January, the Flames will play four home games at the Liberty Arena during the spring season — on Jan. 24, Feb. 7, and Feb. 16 at 7 p.m. and March 4 in its annual “Midnight Mayhem” matchup, against opponents to be determined.
By Christian Shields/Staff Writer; Video edited by Kylee Lilge/Club Sports Video & Media Coordinator
