Bristol, Tenn. – The Saint Francis men's volleyball team (1-3) is sets its sights on another weekend road trip, this time in Tennessee, for Friday and Saturday contests with King University (2-4) and Lincoln Memorial (3-3).
Scouting King
SFU will start the weekend with King, who has begun the season 2-4. They opened with two losses to ranked opponents, #11 Loyola Chicago and #6 Lewis. They won their next two matches to get to 2-2, but have dropped the last two, also to ranked opponents (#15 Ohio State, #1 Hawaii). The Tornado has only played in one match that has gone more than three sets so far.
King is led by three players with 42, 41 and 39 kills: Joshua Kim, Sean Kohlhase and Suetonius Harris. Setter Jack Samowski leads the Tornado with 111 assists, and the duo of Julian Young and Douglas Florencio has combined for nearly 30 total blocks.
Series History: SFU leads, 2-0
This will be the third matchup between the squads. In 2014, SFU swept the first ever meeting in Bristol. The Red Flash also won 3-1 in Loretto in 2016.
Scouting Lincoln Memorial
Lincoln Memorial is off to a 3-3 start, defeating Mount Olive, Quincy and Tusculum but falling to Lindenwood, #15 Ohio State and #1 Hawaii. Similar to King, Lincoln Memorial has not gone past three sets often, only playing two matches that have gotten to four sets.
This season, Evan Cory is leading the Splitters with 80 kills, averaging four per set. Setter Ryan Fox has tallied 122 assists with AJ Risavy adding 72. In the middle of the floor for Lincoln Memorial is Pedro Carvalho, who has 14 block assists and eight solos, leading the team by far.
Series History: Series tied, 0-0
This will be the first meeting between SFU and LMU.
Weekend in Tennessee
The Red Flash had a tough past weekend, falling to Lindenwood and McKendree in its Midwest road trip. Now, heading to Tennessee, SFU is ready to get back on track with solid road wins. SFU will play King in Bristol, then jump to Harrogate for the match with Lincoln Memorial.
Team Stats
Though SFU is 1-3, the team has more kills (155-148), more assists (149-144) and more blocks (34.5-31.5) than its opponents. The team has competed, but is looking for that extra stride to start picking up wins.
Player Stats
Michael Fisher (Mechanicsburg, Pa./Cumberland Valley) is leading the Red Flash with 45 kills. Blake Liprando (Mechanicsburg, Pa./Cumberland Valley HS) and Joshua Blair (Matterson. Illnois/Marian Catholic) have contributed as well, each past 20 kills.
Roman Szwabinsky (Columbus, Ohio/Westerville South) has a team-leading 118 assists through four matches. The leader in blocks is Cole Carver (Hershey, PA/Hershey), who has two solos and 11 block assists.
