No. 11 Wells Men’s Volleyball Team Defeats No. 8 UCSC

There had to be thoughts of 'what if' when Wells College faced the University of California Santa Cruz in its own tournament in the early hours of Sunday morning EST, Jan. 11-12 at Kaiser Permanente Arena in Santa Cruz.

Less than a year ago, the Express might have faced UCSC with a NCCA D-III title berth on the line in the national semifinals. Instead, Wells fell on the short end of a quarterfinal match with Stevens Institute of Technology, while UCSC advanced in its quarterfinal match to eventually finish as the D-III men's volleyball national runner-up. Wells probably came closer to that title berth than most might have predicted given that the unranked Express battled No. 3 Stevens to a 2-2 draw after the first four sets and were just three points away from advancing to face UCSC after holding a 12-11 lead late in the fifth and deciding set.

With that championship experience under their belts, the Express had an opportunity to finally face UCSC – not for a championship berth but in an early season tournament with nothing on the line except a higher ranking in the next national poll.

The Express won its match against the Banana Slugs by 3-2 early Sunday morning EST with winning set scores of 27-25, 25-11 and 15-12. Wells never trailed in the match and held leads of 1-0 and 2-1 before winning 3-2.

In the first set win, the Express trailed 24-23 before Wells claimed four of the last five points for a 27-25 victory. A pair of Joe Zimmerman kills first tied the set at 24 and then put Wells ahead at 25-24. After UCSC tied the set at 25, Josh Undari's kill got the Express a point away and the Slugs suffered an attack error to give Wells an opening-set win.

The second set was played as close to the vest as possible with neither team able to gain a lead greater than two points until a three-point lead ended the set in favor of UCSC at 25-22.

Wells dominated the third set with runs of three-consecutive points or more on five separate occasions. The biggest of those runs was a 5-0 run that gave the Express a 20-7 lead before they claimed a 25-11 third-set win.

The fourth set favored the Slugs for most of the way. The Express couldn't get the upper hand through the set's first 30 points, but finally took a short-lived 16-15 lead before falling 25-19.

In the fifth set, Wells trailed just once by a 6-5 score early but the Slugs remained on the Express' heals throughout the contest. With the deciding set tied at 10-10, Robert Patzer recorded three kills late in the contest. Each Patzer kill allowed Wells to remain a pair of points ahead at 12-10, 13-11 and 14-12 before a UCSC attack error sealed the match for Wells.

Justin Williams was named as the Slug Slam MVP, while Patzer and Undari were named to the all-tournament team. Wells was the lone college to finish undefeated in the tournament at 4-0, with other participants finishing at 3-1 (UCSC), 2-2 (Cal Lutheran), 1-3 (Marymount) and 0-4 (Lakeland).

Four Express players recorded double-digit attack numbers with Patzer leading the way with 19. Zimmerman added 17, Williams 15 and Caden O'Loughlin 11. Of the four, Williams had the highest hitting percentage at .444.

Patzer and O'Loughlin both recorded double-doubles after Patzer added a dozen digs and O'Loughlin had 13. Undari finished with a team-high six blocks (one solo) and registered 61 assists in the five-set match.

The men's volleyball team will next travel to Rochester to take part in the Cardinal Invite at St. John Fisher on Friday, Jan. 17. The Express will face Elmira at 5 p.m. and then the host Cardinals at 7 p.m.