Farruggia, Bayly Sweep NEAC Men’s Volleyball Weekly Awards
GANSEVOORT, N.Y. – Sophomore John Farruggia (Leonardsville, N.Y.) and senior C.J. Bayly (Waymart, Pa.) have earned North Eastern Athletic Conference Men's Volleyball Offensive and Defensive Student-Athlete of the Week honors, respectively. The duo led the Wells College men's volleyball team (9-6, 2-1 NEAC) to their first-ever invitational championship at the Bard Raptors Volleyball Invitational this past weekend, posting a 3-0 record across three matches while winning nine-straight sets without a loss.
Farruggia earned Most Valuable Player recognition following a polling of the participating coaches after the tournament's conclusion. He racked up 30 kills (3.33 k/set) and committed only four errors to produce a .417 hitting percentage (7-2-12) while leading the Express to three straight-set victories. Farruggia also added 10 digs, six service aces and three block assists for 37.5 points (4.2 p/set) through nine sets.
After smashing a match-best seven kills in a 3-0 win over Sarah Lawrence, Farruggia would post back-to-back double-digit kill totals, registering 11 kills to go along with six digs and five aces in a 3-0 win over the host Raptors before setting a single-game program record with a .462 hitting percentage (12-0-26) after recording 12 kills without an error on 26 attack attempts in a sweep of CCNY to close the tournament.
Farruggia currently leads the NEAC with 28 service aces while being second in total points with 141. In program history, Farruggia boasts 248 kills and ranks first amongst all players in with 67 service aces.
For the second straight week, Bayly picked up Defensive Student-Athlete of the Week honors for the Express. The senior libero racked up 26 digs (2.89 d/set) while manning a defense that secured three straight-set victories to win the Bard Raptors Invitational Tournament this past weekend. Bayly tallied 12 digs across a pair of sweeps during Friday's action, then helped Wells lock up the tournament title with a match-best 14 digs in a 3-0 win over CCNY on Saturday.
Bayly remains as the conference leader in both digs (139) and digs per set (2.67) for the Express. Across his career, Bayly ranks first in team history in digs (378), sets played (205) and matches played (63). He also ranks second in assists (635) and total blocks (65).
Wells returns to action this Friday, Feb. 28 as they host the Spartans of D'Youville College at 7:00 p.m. within the Frances Tarlton Farenthold Athletic Wing. The Express will re-attempt the "Bump World Record" on Friday – for more information, click here.
