WILKES-BARRE, PA (February 26, 2023) -- As their February slate comes to a close, the King's College men's volleyball team remains unbeaten and improved to 17-0 with 3-0 victories over Yeshiva University and Immaculata University on Sunday afternoon in McGrane Gymnasium. With the split, the Mighty Macs improve to 5-10 while the Maccabees fall to 3-5.
 
vs. Yeshiva – W, 3-0 (25-12, 25-17, 25-12):
King's (17-0) used an early 7-2 lead to the 25-12 opening set win over Yeshiva (3-5). The Maccabees got on the board first in the second, but the Monarchs opened the scoring with a 12-3 run and never looked back in a 25-17 win. The third set was all King's as they led 17-5 and cruised to a 25-12 set three win and the 3-0 sweep in the opener.
 
Jared Piontkowski led King's with 11 kills on 18 attempts with just three errors, hitting .444, with six aces and three digs, while Joe Herman posted eight kills on 14 attempts with a .429 hitting percentage, adding a team-high eight digs, two blocks, and an ace. Greg Bousquet had a strong performance with five kills and five blocks, while Ben Maskiell dished out 20 assists with two aces. Additionally, Sam Capwell totaled six blocks, while Peter Scholl added four.
 
Yeshiva was led by Lavi Friedman with five kills, while three different players recorded three digs a piece.
 
King's hit .262 for the match while holding the Maccabees to a -.073 hitting percentage with 18 attack errors. The Monarchs also held the edge in kills (33-14), aces (12-0), blocks (13-5), assists (28-14), and digs (20-14).
 
vs. Immaculata – W, 3-0 (25-23, 25-11, 25-12):
The opening set of the night cap was a battle as Immaculata (5-10) carried their momentum from their win over Yeshiva into their match up with King's. The teams went back-and-forth to start the first set which featured 18 ties, but with the Mighty Macs ahead, 22-21, King's took advantage of some costly Immaculata errors in a 3-0 spurt to secure set one, 25-23.
 
King's came out strong in the second leading 7-1 early before opening the scoring with seven unanswered points midway through the set to earn the set two win, 25-11, and take the 2-0 lead in the match. After an evenly contested start to the third, King's rattled off eight straight points to go ahead, 14-5, and never looked back in the 25-12 win to complete the tri-match sweep with a 3-0 win over Immaculata.
 
Joe Herman was strong all around in the second match, posting 12 kills on 24 attempts with just three errors, hitting .375, with eight digs, four aces, and a block. Both Piontkowski and Bousquet totaled seven kills a piece, with Piontkowski tallying a team-high 11 digs and Bousquet adding four blocks. George Beck totaled a team-best 16 assists with four digs, while Aziz Atiyeh added six digs to help the balanced defensive effort.
 
Garrett Pepper recorded a team-high six kills, while Matthew Pfister tallied 10 digs.
 
The Monarchs were sounder offensively in the night cap, posting a .312 hitting percentage with just 11 attack errors, while the defense kept their second team of the day negative with a -.037 hitting percentage and 21 attack errors. Inside the stat sheet, King's held the advantage in kills (35-18), aces (8-4), blocks (7-3), assists (31-17), and digs (36-28).
 
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The Monarchs will be off for the week before heading to Lancaster, Pa. on Saturday, March 4 for a tough non-conference tri-match with the host Lancaster Bible and Southern Virginia. Action is set to begin at 1:00 p.m.