FRANKLIN, MA (February 11, 2023) -- The King's College men's volleyball team posted another dominant effort on Saturday afternoon as the Monarchs swept Northern Vermont University-Johnson and Dean College, 3-0, at Dean to come home 3-0 in their time in Massachusetts this weekend. With the sweep, the Monarchs improve to 13-0, while the Bulldogs drop to 1-4, and the Badgers stand at 4-1.
 
vs. Northern Vermont University – Johnson – W, 3-0 (25-14, 25-11, 25-19):
While the opening set started out close, King's (13-0) ran away with it as they opened the scoring to take a 19-9 lead and never looked back on their way to a 25-14 victory in set one. It was a similar story in set two, as Northern Vermont University – Johnson (4-1) trailed by just three, 9-6, before King's rattled off the next six points of the set and closed out strong with a 25-11 win to take a 2-1 lead in the match. The Monarchs dominated the Badgers early in the final set, and despite one final push from the Badgers that saw them close within four, 23-19, King's slammed the door with kills from the senior pair of Sam Capwell and Joe Herman to secure the set, 25-19, and the match, 3-0.
 
Junior Jared Piontkowski led King's with seven kills while adding five digs, and junior Nick Greenawalt posted six kills on 10 attempts with no errors to hit .600 with three digs and two blocks. Herman tallied five kills to go along with four aces and four digs, while first year Owen McFadden was efficient at the net, going 4-for-6 with just one error and adding four blocks. First year Ben Maskiell dished out 14 assists with three aces and three digs, while senior Declan Larson led the defensive efforts with seven digs.
 
NVU-Johnson was led by Zachary Anderson with seven kills, while Luke Walters totaled 10 assists and seven digs.
 
While King's struggled a bit offensively, hitting .211 for the match, the defense remained strong as they limited the Badgers to a -.043 hitting percentage with 17 attack errors. The Monarchs also held the edge in kills (28-14), aces (9-6), blocks (7-5), assists (23-14), and digs (33-26).
 
vs. Dean College – W, 3-0 (25-6, 25-3, 25-8):
A dominant effort from start to finish saw King's hold Dean (1-4) to just 17 points in the entire match. An early 9-2 lead propelled the Monarchs to the 25-6 win in the opening set, before an impressive defensive performance allowed the Monarchs to cruise to a 25-3 set two win. Despite a late push from the Bulldogs, it was too little too late as the Monarchs won the final set, 25-8, and the match, 3-0, over the hosts.
 
Both Piontkowski and sophomore Gavin Gilhool led King's with six kills each as Gilhool was a perfect 6-for-6 for the game with four blocks. McFadden also went without an error in the match, going 5-for-5 with three blocks. Herman tied the program-record for service aces in a three-set match with 10 while adding five digs, and Maskiell tallied 17 helpers with three aces and three digs in the win. Additionally, senior George Beck lent out 10 assist, and junior Mike Bizzoco led the defense with seven digs.
 
Dean was led by Tyler Martins with three kills, while Aaron Fonseca added six digs.
 
King's found their groove offensively in this match, hitting .473 (30-55) with just four attack errors, while holding the Bulldogs to a -.230 hitting percentage with 22 attack errors. Inside the stat sheet, King's held the advantage in kills (30-8), aces (17-0), blocks (10-2), assists (28-8), and digs (28-21) in the win.
 
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The Monarchs will wrap up their five-game road stretch next Saturday as they travel to Drew University for a tri-match with the host Rangers and New Jersey City University. Action is set to get underway at 1:00 p.m. in Madison, NJ.