No. 4 Men’s Volleyball Team Splits at Wildcat Invitational

The No. 4 (Massey Ratings) and No. 7 (AVCA) Wells College men's volleyball team settled for a split at the SUNY Poly Wildcat Invitational on Friday, Jan. 24.

The Express ended tournament play with a 3-0 sweep over the John Jay Bloodhounds, but prior to that lost its first match of the season to the Wentworth Institute of Technology by a 3-1 score. The match with the Leopards was perhaps the closest of any between Wells and another opponent this season.

The Leopards came out on top of two of the three sets that went into extra points. Overall, Wentworth finished the match with six points more (100-94) than Wells with both teams receiving votes in the last American Volleyball Coaches Association National D-III Poll.

The loss snapped Wells' seven-game winning streak. The Leopards started with a 27-25 opening set win, but Wells responded by taking the second set with a 26-24 victory. The pivotal third set went to Wentworth by a 25-21 score and the Express' rally fell short in an extra-point fourth set at 26-24.

Wells had four players in double-digit digs with Kevin Batmunkh leading the way with 13. He was followed by Caden O'Loughlin with 11 digs. Josh Undari and Robert Patzer both recorded 10 digs with the latter adding a pair of aces.

Caden O'Loughlin led the Express in kills with 17 and was followed by Justin Williams with 14 and Joe Zimmerman with 11.

Wells will face its highest-ranking opposition of the season to date next when the Express travels to No. 2 (AVCA) Springfield College (Mass.) for a 7 p.m. match on Jan. 31. The Pride was the No. 1 seed in the 2019 NCAA Division III Men's Volleyball Championship.