By Alexander Rodriguez, Sports Editor
Beginning the 2024 season, the Aquinas Men’s Volleyball team were expecting big outcomes from a team with a heavy underclassmen roster. They went into their first matchup in the season during an exhibition match against Calvin College, a D3 team nearby. This matchup held for an exciting home opener, when starting the game, the team came out wearing a ‘Broken Crayons Still Color” shirt in support of Mental Health, while also having President Cordoba and a showing of Calvin’s previous president. The first two sets had the crowd biting their nails while they lost both by fewer than 5 points in both. They came back hard in the next three sets to pull off a reverse sweep against Calvin!
They followed this matchup against another D3 exhibition match when facing Olivet. In a game quicker than their first they were able to beat Olivet in only 4 sets. Having a lead in sets from the beginning only dropping the 3rd set to Olivet.
Unfortunately for the Aquinas Men’s Volleyball team, they were unsuccessful in winning for the rest of the season, having to play against 5 plus teams that were either nationally ranked or receiving votes. Along with that, they were able to succeed in a technical win against Lawerence Tech who had a player with no more eligibility compete in the game against them.
Although the season didn’t appear fantastic in the record of 3- 22, there were some huge highlights this year.
This season held a court presence of often four or more freshmen throughout the game, along with sophomores, which shows they were an underclassmen heavy team. Throughout this season, these underclassmen got experience against some of the top teams in the nation to continue to improve in their seasons moving forward. Along with playing against them, they competed well against them, although not pulling off a victory, it was clear to see that there was constant improvement throughout the season.
Pulling off set wins against teams either nationally ranked or receiving votes, show that there wasn’t a huge hope and excitement as they close out this season into their next.
Connor Statts, received All Freshman Team, while having over 200 kills within his freshman season. Scott Hopkins received Champion of Character Team. Lastly a list of students received All Academic Honors, including: Daniel Austin, Gage Dinges, Scott Hopkins, Colin Ilagan, Ernesto Lopes, Leo Paul Rousseau and Callahan Schwartz.
The Saint 