For the past week, Bryn Athyn College Men's Volleyball has been fighting through illness and injuries. They endured one close contest after the other, seemingly unable to break through the cycle.
The Lions wrapped up the weekend with two wins and two losses to move to a 3-5 record early in the season. In those five losses, over 50% of the sets lost were by three points or less.
"We recognize the need to finish out those close matches," said Head Coach Jason Barshinger. "We're improving every day, but we're still a young team at the core. They've had a tough stretch with injuries and with so many of our guys sick the last few days. It'll be good to see us healthy and at full strength here soon."
On Saturday, the team traveled to Maryland to face off against Neumann University and host Hood College in a tri-match. They made the trip without starting outside hitter Bryan Choute , who currently sits in fourth place in the United East Conference with 3.59 kills per set in his sophomore year. While Choute was out due to illness, Freshman outside hitter Miles Shepard made a valiant effort to play through his own illness. Shepard, who was named the offensive player of the week in his first stint of college action, currently sits third in the conference with 3.91 kills per set.
Bryn Athyn would fall to Neumann 3-0 by the scores 25-14, 25-20, 25-10 in the first match of the day. Shepard finished with eight kills in limited time. Freshman middle hitter Owen Reuter had a consistent game with four kills on 12 attempts. Freshman Atai Esenov played the libero position and tallied nine digs.
In the second match of the day, the Lions faced off against the Hood College Blazers. Fighting to a 23-23 tie in the first set, two costly possessions gave the first set victory to Hood. The Lions would find the energy to fight once again but fell short 25-21 in the second set before the Blazers finished set 3 with a 25-14 win and sealed the victory. Shepard finished with six kills in limited time. Reuter once again finished with a productive four kills. Sophomore Adan Rodriguez-Sapien managed to collect a team high 12 digs while playing outside hitter instead of his normal libero position.
The Lions then returned home to face Yeshiva University for a Sunday double header. Getting back to the win column, Bryn Athyn ran off six straight set victories to collect back-to-back sweeps of the visiting Maccabees. The final scores were 25-9, 25-13, 25-18 in the first match and 25-11, 25-13, 25-6 in the second match. Choute participated and collected 10 kills on 56% hitting, 7 aces, and 5 digs on the day. Shepard finished with 8 kills on 61% hitting in both matches. Freshman Napolean Pizarro-Lind wrapped the day up with 6 kills on 45% hitting, 6 aces, 5 digs, and 1 assist. Junior Ryan Gihvan Ryan had a solid two matches with 7 kills on 37% hitting, 1 block, and 1 ace overall.
"Find our way back to being healthy," stated Barshinger. "That's really the key right now. We're learning a lot about ourselves along the way. Many encouraging signs from the younger guys out of this last week."
As for the path ahead, it seems like the number one goal is to get back to full strength.
"We'll get ourselves healthy and begin to see what our full potential can really be. I believe in this group and what they can do."
Bryn Athyn will return home to face Immaculata in a rematch of last week's game that saw the Lions grab 40-38 set win before Immaculata went on to win 3-1. The game is slated for Wednesday, February 5 at 7:00 pm at the Asplundh Field House.
