BRISTOL, Tennessee- The No. 1 seeded University of Mount Olive men's volleyball team defeated the No. 5 seeded Tornado of King University 3-1 in the semifinals of the Conference Carolinas Championship Saturday afternoon. The Trojans improve to 13-3 and King falls to 12-13.
GAME INFORMATION
Mount Olive took the early lead capturing the first two points of the set on their way to a six-point lead at 12-6. King fought back, but the Trojans never let their lead drop below four as at 18-14, UMO scored the next 6-out-of-5 points to get the set to set point. The Tornado came alive though, however, and spouted off six unanswered points to take their first lead of the game at 25-24. Tobi Azeez began and ended the comeback for the Trojans as a kill on both end of a 5-to-2 run closed out the 27-25 set win for Mount Olive.
The second set was a nail-bitter as the set was tied 21 times before King ended the set with the final three points to win the frame 26-24 and tie the match at one.
The third set had Mount Olive kick it back into high gear climbing out to a 16-9 lead, led by three kills from Eric Visgitis. The two squads exchanged points for the next few points until, with UMO leading 19-3, Luke Visgitis started another run for the Trojans that allowed the Trojans to close out the set with a 6-3 run and win 25-16.
The final set saw UMO move out to a modest 11-7 lead early on, but that lead evaporated when KU tied the set at 13. The set was tied three more times before Dominic Hagerty started a four-point run for that seemed to put the game out of reach. Once again the set became tied when the Tornado knotted the set at 24. The final points went 3-1 in favor of UMO and the Trojans took the set 27-25 and the match 3-1.
Mount Olive Leaders
The Trojans were led by Tobi Azeez with 21 kills. Jarrod Ferguson added 53 assists and Luke Visgitis had eight blocks on the day as well.
King Leaders
The Tornado were led by Joshua Kim with 19 kills.
Up Next
Mount Olive advances to the Conference Carolinas Championship Final against Belmont Abbey at 1:00 P.M., in Bristol, Tenn. at King University, the host school for the championship.
