William Penn Knocks Off OUAZ, Reaches Semis for First Time
Cedar Rapids–The Statesmen men’s volleyball team checked off another box as it advanced by defeating #4 seed Ottawa (Ariz.) 3-2 in Pool D competition Thursday.
#5 seed WPU (24-6), which won by scores of 19-25, 25-20, 25-20, 20-25, 15-11, has cleared pool play action for the first time in program history.
The navy and gold now have their biggest task ahead of them as they meet #1 overall seed and Pool A champion The Master’s (Calif.) in the national semifinals Friday at 7:30 p.m. Friday’s other semifinal will pit #6 seed Saint Xavier (Ill.) against #7 seed Georgetown (Ky.) at 4 p.m.
In a victory that set a new record for single-season wins, WPU outhit the Spirit .264-.254, was slightly better in aces (7-6), and won the blocking battle 11-8.
William Penn came out of the gate slow Thursday, never holding a lead in the first set en route to falling behind 1-0.
The sides were even for the first half of the second round. Down 12-11, the Statesmen caught fire and scored eight in a row. OUAZ (19-8) closed to within three late, but WPU wrapped it up to tie the match at one set apiece.
The third set was even more convincing in favor of the navy and gold as they tallied the first three points of the round and went wire-to-wire to put the Spirit in a must-win situation heading into the fourth.
Unfortunately, the OUAZ answered the call and forced a fifth and deciding set. The Statesmen, who avenged their season-opening loss to the Spirit from back on January 25, gave up the first point of the fifth round and trailed 4-2 before going on a 6-2 run to take the advantage for good.
OUAZ tied the set one final time at 10-10, but Charlie Figy (Sr., Appleton, Wis., Secondary Education PE K-12) was a one-man wrecking crew down the stretch by posting three kills, including the match-winner, as the victors finished with five of the final six points.
William Penn’s big five attackers were fairly balanced as usual with Figy (team-best .706 attack pct.) and Ike Papes (Sr., Elwood, Ill., Sports Management) leading the charge with 13 kills each.
Landon Krause (Sr., Appleton, Wis., Business Management) joined his teammates in double digits with 11 kills in addition to 10 digs for a double-double. The senior’s 11 kills pushed his 2024 tally to 405, helping him break the single-season kills record, previously held by Papes (395 in 2022).
Devyn Zavala (Sr., Long Beach, Calif., Wellness and Recreation) was next with eight kills, while Britten Beallis (So., Naperville, Ill., Sports Management) contributed six winners as well.
Matt Helmick (Sr., Fullerton, Calif., Business Management) fell a bit short of his own double-double with 46 assists and eight digs, while Joao Gabriel Filippelli (Fr., Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Business Management) also managed eight digs.
Anthony Torres (Sr., Aurora, Ill., Computer Science) guided the servers with three aces, while Krause finished with two.
One night after breaking the program record for single-season blocks, Beallis was able to tie Krause with five stops against the Spirit. Figy added four as well.
“It is hard to put into words what tonight means for our program,” Head Coach Luke Bentley said. “Tonight is a culmination of the entire University and athletic department investing and believing in something that did not exist five years ago. This win is for every former, current, and future player in our program. It is all about the players; I am just along for the ride and I sure hope that ride continues for another day.”
