The Flames Division I team finished 6-4 against mostly semi-professional competition Saturday in Virginia Beach.
Men’s volleyball holds its own against semi-pro players at Virginia Beach indoor tournament
11/10/2024 11:02:00 PM | Men's Volleyball
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Liberty finished 6-2 in pool play before being eliminated in the quarterfinals of the playoffs.
Liberty University's Division I men's indoor volleyball team made the most of a unique opportunity in Saturday's Big Money Tournament hosted by the Tidewater Volleyball Association in the Virginia Beach Sportsplex, finishing second in its six-team pool and fifth out of 11 teams overall after being eliminated in the quarterfinal round of playoffs.
As the only collegiate program from the Eastern Collegiate Volleyball Association in the field, Liberty placed second in its six-team pool with a record of 6-2, behind only DC Dynasty's Volleyball League of America (VLA), a semi-professional team that didn't face the Flames but went 8-0 against the other four teams in their pool.
The Flames opened the day with a 25-11, 25-19 sweep of Coastal 17, a high-school-aged travel team from North Carolina. They then were swept by Arlington Empire VLA — finished third in its pool at 5-3 — by 25-18, 25-21 scores before bouncing back to defeat Coastal 18 Tony, 25-19, 25-18, and DMV Dynasty's USA Volleyball team, 25-22, 25-18.
"It was good to compete against some teams that were a little more experienced than us, to see matchups of greater size from a lot of semi-pro athletes that are 6-foot-9 or 6-10," Flames Head Coach Josh Knapp said. "We wanted to see heavy competition that would challenge the guys more than what we'd normally see in our conference, and it was a great opportunity to get matchups that we might face against taller teams at nationals and see how they compete against different styles of play. It definitely was a good challenge for us, and guys really rose to the occasion. They figured out the flow of the game throughout the day and how to compete against teams of different size and speed of the game."
He said VLA teams are composed of semi-pro adults competing in a United States volleyball association that has multiple tiers.
"Those teams compete across the nation," Knapp said. "There are some really good athletes from Division I colleges that play there afterwards and continue their volleyball careers through that."
Liberty met its match in the quarterfinal round of the gold bracket playoffs, taking the Rockville (Md.) Reign VLA to three games before falling, 22-25, 25-16, and 20-18.
"We had a really good showing, pushing past the 15-point cap for Game 3," Knapp said. "Guys showed great consistency by being able to stick in that game, trading points against one of the largest teams we saw height-wise. Through matchups that were tough, we were still very proficient in scoring and getting past their blocks as well as handling their offense. We really handled focusing on the aspects we needed to compete with a really solid team and showed and played some of the best volleyball we've seen this year."
"The whole team continued to find itself as a team, and transitioned well to playing together as one unit," he added. "That was a great positive throughout the day. I really liked the chemistry and team energy that we brought and saw great effort from those guys (on Saturday)."
The Flames' 12-man roster strengthened its standing as top-tier team members through the day of highly competitive play.
"We got to solidify more what our lineup's looking like for the spring semester and get a little bit of a peak at how they play against heavier competition," Knapp said. "It was a great showing out there for some of our returners and freshmen, including Isaac Oden, our freshman setter, and Josh Davis, (a 6-5 sophomore transfer from San Diego) who is finding a role at right-side hitter, where he is working really well with the systems that we have. He is finding his footing, both in the front row and with his back-row hitting, scoring well for us."
He said sophomore outside hitter Anthony Bernardo and Davis were especially effective options for Oden to set to for kills from the left and right sides, respectively.
Middle hitters Jayden Rice, a senior captain, and sophomore Austin Leach played consistently throughout the day, both with their spikes and on the blocking side.
"Defensively, we've been working with (sophomore) John Kinzler, who moved up from playing outside hitter and libero on the DII team last year, as a replacement for Mason (Ellenberger), our main libero from previous years," Knapp said. "He has had to take on a big role for the team and saw a lot of great motivation throughout that day as (Liberty's blockers) funneled (opposing teams') hits toward his direction on the court."
TVA also has beach tournaments that Liberty has competed in in the past, and one that the Flames will go to in February to begin spring semester play.
The Flames' men's beach team has qualified along with Webber (Fla.) University, Stevenson (Md.) University, and Erskine (S.C.) College to compete with its top five pairings in next weekend's American Volleyball Coaches Association (AVCA) Men's Beach National Championships in Huntsville, Ala."We will be looking to keep growing beach volleyball across the East Coast and see if we can have the impact," Knapp said.
By Ted Allen/Staff WriterTeam members received new volleyball bags at practices last week before leaving Lynchburg for Virginia Beach.
