Vikings Headed to NAIA National Championship Match, Defeat Campbellsville in Semifinals

Men’s Volleyball | Fri, Apr. 15, 2022

West Des Moines, IA – The No.1 ranked Grand View men’s volleyball team came away victorious in its thrilling national semifinals match at the MidAmerican Energy Company RecPlex on Friday night against Campbellsville. The Vikings and Tigers dueled it out on the court over four sets, but it was the Vikings who came out on top by scores of 25-22, 26-24,22-25 and 31-29.

Set 1: Grand View University 25 l Campbellsville University 22

The beginning of the first set was a rough stretch for the Vikings as they found themselves down 4-10. A timely response from Grand View’s offense was much needed and happened just moments later with Grand View completing a 5-0 scoring run to pull within one at 9-10. The Vikings eventually tied the match after a service ace from Erick Villar-Cordero and took their first lead on the following point at 16-15 due to attack error on Campbellsville. A pivotal 3-0 scoring run later in the set, which featured kills by Daniel Wong (SO/Campbell, CA), Bayron Valdez (SO/Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic) and Daniel Galili (FR/Shomrat, Israel), pushed Grand View’s lead to four and made way for the set winning kill by Oscar Manana (SR/Bronx, NY).

Set 2: Grand View University 26 l Campbellsville University 24

The two squads began the second set matching each other point-for-point all the way to a draw at 10-10. The set was deadlocked again at the 17-17 point, but Campbellsville gained a slight advantage when it scored the following two points of off kills. The Vikings immediately countered, however, and rattled off three straight points to take a one-point lead, 20-19. The set was then tied once again a few points later at 24-24, but Grand View took matters into its own hands and scored the next two points with a Manana kill and a service ace by Francisco Arredondo (JR/Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic ) to win the set.

Set 3: Grand View University 22 l Campbellsville University 25

Set three saw the Vikings jump out in front to a four-point lead in the early goings as a kill by Valdez made the score 12-8. The comeback by Campbellsville happened slowly over the middle stages until the set was even at 18-18. With the momentum in favor of the Tigers, they claimed seven of the next 11 points to make it a 2-1 match.

Set 4: Grand View University 31 l Campbellsville University 29

In the fourth, the Vikings ran out to a similar four-point lead at 12-8 after a 3-0 scoring run…