Men's Volleyball Goes 1-1 at Life Tri-Match

MARIETTA, Ga. – The Brescia Men's Volleyball team traveled to Marietta, GA this past weekend for a tri-match against Truett McConnell and Life University. The Bearcats came out with a win and a loss in the event as they extended their record to 4-4.

The weekend for the Bearcats started against the bears of TMU. The Bearcats jumped out to a 12-8 lead and never fell behind in the first set. They secured set one with a 13-5 run with a final score of 25-12. The Bears of TMU looked to rebound after a slow start and kept the score tight in the second set. In the battle, the Bears tied the score at 21 as the Bears struggled to get the ball across to give BU the win. The Bearcats commanded the lead in what would be the final set of the match as consecutive kills by Ben Zerwes ended the match.

Freshman, Ben Zerwes, had 16 kills out of 20 attempts with only 1 error. Hitting a blistering .750, Zerwes added three block assists and tallied 17.5 points for the Bearcats. Finn Berger led the Bearcats with 18 assists and sophomore DS Miguel Veloso was the defensive leader with 9 digs. Also assisting on the defensive side would be Mustfa Yildiz recording two solo blocks and six block assists.

The second match of the day for the Bearcats was against Life, the home team of the match. The Bearcats dominated Life surging out to a 16-8 run in set one. Set two went to the Bearcats with little resistance from the Eagle team as they secured the 25-13 win. Brescia took a commanding 17-7lead before the Life University Men's program started to put up a fight. Three straight attacking errors by the Bearcats led to three consecutive kills for the Eagles. The Bearcats slowly saw their 10-point lead disappear as Life finished with the 25-22 win in set three. With all the momentum, the Eagles of Life University took set four, bringing it down to a fifth set showdown.

The Eagles started the deciding set with a 3-1 lead before Brescia could respond with a run of their own. The next five points traded between the two teams until Coach Forbes called a timeout. After the break, the Eagles mistakenly missed their serve, giving Brescia the lead. With a kill by the Eagles and two attacking errors by the Bearcats, Life would finish the comeback and take the fifth set to win the match.

"This was a tough one. Volleyball is such a mental game, and for our young team it was too much to overcome. But I am a silver lining guy, I think this is a very important lesson for our young men and we will learn from this. It will make us better!!!" (Coach Forbes)

Leading the Bearcats in this five-set match in kills was freshman outside hitter Malo Vandewalle (13) and M. Yildiz (9). The assists came from both Berger (19) and Hernandez (18). Again, the defense was led by Veloso with 21 digs. Yildiz added three solo blocks, and six block assists and Palacios would add a solo and three assists in the blocking column.

The men will be back in action next Saturday, 2/14/26, as they travel to Campbellsville University. The varsity team is slated to play Bethel (IN.) and Governors State, while the JV program will play against Governors State and the Tigers of Campbellsville. First serve will be at 10am CT.