Men’s Volleyball | Tue, Apr. 12, 2022
West Des Moines, IA – The No.1 ranked Grand View men’s volleyball team started its journey to claim back-to-back national titles on Tuesday night from the MidAmerican Energy RecPlex at the 2022 NAIA National Championship. The Vikings took on Aquinas College in their first leg of pool play and swept the Saints in straight sets with scores of 25-20, 25-15 and 25-20.
Set 1: Grand View University 25 l Aquinas College 20
The Vikings and the Saints started out the first set trading the first few opening points back and forth until Grand View gained a slim two-point advantage on a kill by Bayron Valdez (SO/Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic) at the 9-7 mark. Grand View increased its lead to five a few moments later after a 3-0 scoring run, which was highlighted on a service ace from Valdez. The Vikings lead reached its peak after a Daniel Galili (FR/Shomrat, Israel) kill made it 22-16 and shortly after Grand View claimed the set off a service error by the Saints.
Set 2: Grand View University 25 l Aquinas College 15
The Vikings fell behind in the early stages of the second set, but quickly rallied to take the lead after a 3-0 scoring streak put the score at 9-7. Grand View used that momentum and never trailed for the remainder of the set and went ahead by eight points when the hot hand of Valdez scored back-to-back kills to put the score at 21-13. A final 3-0 scoring run in the closing stages by the Vikings sealed the set victory with Galili, Francisco Arredondo (JR/Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic ) and Leonardo Annichini (SO/Verona, Italy) all tallying a point during the stretch.
Set 3: Grand View University 25 l Aquinas College 20
The third set saw Grand View jump out to a quick 6-1 advantage due to a 5-0 scoring streak that was capped off by a kill from Daniel Wong (SO/Campbell, CA). The Saints slowly chipped away at the Grand View lead through the middle stage of the set and pulled within three points at the 17-14 mark. However, that would be as close as Aquinas would get as the Vikings stayed resilient in the final third of the set. Grand View went on to win the set and match as it scored the final three points consecutively with a service ace from Galili being the winning point.
Key players…
Bayron Valdez was the leader on the offensive side for the Vikings as he racked up 10 kills in the match. Daniel Galili and Leonardo Annichini were right behind with nine kills each. On…
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