The men’s volleyball team looked to rebound off a tough loss against rival King’s College with a non-conference tri-match Saturday in the Marts Center. They did exactly that with a pair of wins over visiting Immaculata University and Wilson College.

“It was very exciting to see the fight the team had and will to prevail after starting the match down two sets and being in a no-lose situation,” said assistant coach Alex Czopek. “Players, coaches, and spectators alike were all feeling the excitement of the win.”

In the first match of the day, things were not looking bright for the Colonels as they lost the first two sets to the Mighty Macs of Immaculata. The sets were neck and neck, but Immaculta got the big points towards the end and capitalized on some Wilkes’ mistakes.

Wilkes needed to respond quickly if they wanted to get back into this game. Once again, the third set was very even. This time the Colonels made the big plays at the end and won the set 25-23.

“We realized that we weren’t playing to our full potential and that we had come into the game a bit overconfident,” said sophomore middle hitter Paul Binner. “We knew we had to make a move coming

into the third game, so we made an effort to start picking it up on the offensive and defensive side of our game.”

Wilkes was able to carry that momentum, and take full control of the fourth set. It was a completely different team than the one that played the first couple of sets. Everything started to click for the Colonels.

With Wilkes being able to tie things up and force a deciding fifth set, they knew they needed to stay loose and play with zero pressure. A quick run early in the set would be the deciding factor for the Colonels, as they had come back from down 2-0 to get an impressive win over Immaculata in their first match of the day.

The Wilson Phoenix had no shot of slowing down this Colonels team in the second match of the day. The offense looked like a well-oiled machine and the defense was a brick wall, not allowing any balls to drop. It was a complete domination as the Colonels swept the Phoenix in straight sets 25-13, 25-9, 25-8.

“A win is a win,” said Casey Shipman. “It feels good, especially after some tough losses. Coach told us he thought we would have a lot of success this weekend, and I am happy we could follow through. As a team, we want to take the momentum from these wins and ride it into next week so we can get a few more W’s.”