Statesmen Collect First Sweep of Season

Davenport--After several challenging bouts in its opening week, the William Penn men's volleyball team finally got to cruise to a sweep as it defeated St. Ambrose 3-0 in non-conference action Tuesday.

WPU (3-1), which won by scores of 25-18, 25-13, 25-20, outhit the Fighting Bees .476-.153 and held a 49-25 edge in kills.

The visitors only trailed on a few occasions all evening and were never behind by more than a single point, including facing a 2-1 deficit in the first set.  William Penn answered with three straight, while another few small runs pushed the advantage to 21-11.  SAU (1-5) attempted to make it interesting with seven of the next nine points, but never really threatened the Statesmen.

WPU had the Midas Touch as everything went gold offensively in the second go-round.  The Statesmen hit .696 as a collective group with 17 kills and only one error as they led from start to finish for a 2-0 lead.  The squad managed three of its six aces during the set.

The third and final set was the tightest of the contest with the sides knotted up at 11-11.  Fortunately, the navy and gold rattled off six of the next seven points and motored to the end.

Each of William Penn's top five hitters tallied at least four kills with Landon Krause (Sr., Appleton, Wis., Business Management) leading the charge with 15 winners.

Ike Papes (Sr., Elwood, Ill., Sports Management) also hit double digits with 13 kills, while Devyn Zavala (Sr., Long Beach, Calif., Wellness and Recreation) fell just shy of the mark with nine, in addition to three aces.

WPU's most efficient attacker for the night, Charlie Figy (Sr., Appleton, Wis., Secondary Education PE K-12) recorded seven kills on a .778 hitting clip.

Matt Helmick (Sr., Fullerton, Calif., Business Management) distributed the ball well with 39 assists.  Joao Gabriel Filippelli (Fr., Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Business Management) had five digs to lead the back row players, while Britten Beallis (So., Naperville, Ill., Sports Management), who was limited to only four kills, headlined the net defense with three blocks.

"Our guys did a nice job of controlling the pace and game," Head Coach Luke Bentley said.  "This was a good win for our group."

Next Up: William Penn travels to Mount Vernon, Ohio next Thursday to face Mount Vernon Nazarene in non-conference play at 6 p.m. (CST)