By: St. John Fisher Athletics
UTICA, NY - The St. John Fisher College men's volleyball team made its first road trip of the season to SUNY Poly in Utica on Friday to compete in the Wildcat Invitational. The Cardinals, who are receiving votes in the latest NVA/AVCA Division III Men's Coaches Poll, won both of their matches in day one with a pair of 3-1 victories. Fisher defeated Alvernia (25-12, 20-25, 25-22, 25-15) before beating Adrian (25-17, 25-19, 20-25, 25-17).
The wins give the Cardinals a 4-1 record on the season. It is the best five-game start to a season in the program's three year history.
FISHER 3, ALVERNIA 1
The Cardinals took control in the first set winning it 25-12. After dropping a 25-20 decision in the second, Fisher won a tight third set by a score of 25-22. The Cardinals were able to close it out in the fourth set, winning the frame 25-15.
Josh Bigford was the Cardinals' kills leader with 13. The sophomore hit .522 and earned eight digs and four aces. Matt Broderick had 12 kills and six digs while Martin Hackford recorded 10 kills and five digs. David Cerqua led the team with 17 digs and Paul Hackford tallied a team-high 42 assists.
FISHER 3, ADRIAN 1
With sitting their kills leader in Bigford and their assists leader in Paul Hackford, Matt Beiter and
Dylan Urbanski took over early for the Cardinals. Beiter, the freshman, earned four of the Cardinals' first seven points of the game with kills. A 6-1 run that featured a pair of kills from Broderick and an ace from Graham Brodsky made it 16-12 in favor of Fisher.
The Cardinals were able to close out the opening frame with three points won in a row. Urbanski set up Eric Bentivegna for the point to seal the set victory. The Cardinals hit .450 in the first frame that included zero errors the entire set.
Fisher got out to a 12-7 advantage with Broderick striking an ace to give the Cardinals a five-point edge. A four-point streak made it 17-11 and the Cardinals soared to a two-sets-to-none lead with Beiter earning the set-winning point.
The Bulldogs utilized a couple point streaks to take the third stanza, however, Fisher took back control with an early 3-1 edge to start the fourth. Ivan Lopez recorded the assist on an Avery Terroso kill and then on the following point posted the kill to give the Cardinals the early lead.
The score was at 6-5 in favor of fisher when the Cardinals used a 5-1 run to push the advantage to five. At 13-10, Beiter shined with back-to-back kills and then Brandon Cox-Bagley hit an ace past the Bulldogs. Fisher would win the next two points and make it 18-10 with their sights sets on taking the match.
Broderick would strike the final kill to seal the victory. Beiter had a game-high 14 kills while Broderick was right behind with 13 kills to go along with 10 digs. Urbanski posted a game-high 39 assists while Cerqua earned a game-high 16 digs. Terroso also had a solid showing with eight kills and 11 digs.
Next up for the Cardinals is day two of the tournament at SUNY Poly. Fisher faces John Jay College at 1 p.m. and then will go up against the Wentworth Institute of Technology at 3 p.m.