THIEL, SAINT VINCENT EARN FIRST ROUND VICTORIES, ADVANCE TO SEMIFINALS

The #2 seeds in both the North and South divisions picked up First Round victories in the AMCC Men's Volleyball Championship Tournament on Tuesday evening. Thiel College, the #2 seed out of the North defeated #3S Hiram College 3-0, while the #2 seed from the South, Saint Vincent College, earned the 3-0 victory over #3N Hilbert College.

Thiel 3, Hiram 0
The Thiel College men's volleyball team defeated the Hiram Terriers, 3-0, in an AMCC First Round matchup on Tuesday.
 
The Tomcats won in straight sets 25-20, 26-24, 25-17. JC Govannucci led the Tomcats with 12 kills, 10 digs and three blocks. James Cromwell-Young recorded nine kills, while Zac Smith recorded eight kills, seven digs and three blocks. Cameron Long notched a game-high 22 digs, the third time this season he has recorded 20 or more digs in a single match. Ethan Cooper recorded a game-high 32 assists.
 
For Hiram, Kyle Martini recorded seven kills and eight digs, while Matthew Albano recorded eight digs, 21 assists, one block and one service ace. 
 
The Tomcats advance to the AMCC semifinals against Geneva College on Friday. The semifinal and final will be hosted by Penn-State Behrend, who earned the number one overall seed this season.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Saint Vincent 3, Hilbert 0
The Saint Vincent men's volleyball team defeated Hilbert 3-0 to win their AMCC Tournament first round matchup, advancing to the AMCC semifinals. The win for the Bearcats marks their first-ever AMCC Tournament victory in the program's four-year history. It is also the Bearcats' 11th victory of the season, which is also a program record for Saint Vincent.
 
Saint Vincent swept the Hawks, having full control the whole way through, winning the first set 25-14, the second set 25-18, and closing out the third set in a marathon set, 29-27.

Shawn McSwiggen led the way for the Bearcats with a double-double, notching a career-high 18 kills, while also adding 11 digs for SVC as well. Matthew Minkin also recorded a double-double for SVC, recording 11 kills, while also picking up 12 digs in the win for the Bearcats. Zach Wyant assisted on 28 kills for Saint Vincent, while recording four digs as well. Coming off of the bench, Joshua Canty tallied eight digs as well for SVC. Michael Pollak added three kills and Zachary Mumpower and Chrystiaan Sexton had two kills each for the Bearcats.

Hilbert's Brad Converse (11), Alex Overhoff (10), and Chris Laboy (9) earned all but nine of the Hawk's 40 team kills. Luis Garcia led with 13 digs and Converse chipped in eight. Austin Chandler (18 assists) and Ryan Levcik (13 assists) shared time quarterbacking the Hilbert offense. Dylan Suter and Overhoff were credited with both solo blocks as well as the one block assist recorded.

The Bearcats advance to AMCC semifinals on Friday, April 14 when they travel to Erie, Pa. to take on the top-seeded Penn State-Behrend Lions. The match is scheduled to begin at 4:30 p.m. at Penn State-Behrend.