Box Score by Doug Page
WILSON, N.C. – The Barton College men's volleyball team ran its Conference Carolinas winning streak to five on Saturday with a 3-0 (25-13, 25-18, 25-16) sweep of Belmont Abbey College inside Wilson Gymnasium.
Barton (7-6, 5-0) received a combined 25 kills from the Mandilaris brothers as both Angelos and Vasilis would hit .500 in the match. As a team, the Bulldogs hit .493 with 42 kills on 71 attempts. Belmont Abbey (4-8, 3-4) hit just .194 as a team in the match despite recording 13 kills and a .458 hitting percentage in the second set.
Sophomore Angelos Mandilaris tallied a match-high 15 kills for Barton while recording four digs and two aces. Junior Vasilis Mandilaris added 10 kills on 16 attempts for BC while contributing a pair of aces. Junior Justice Lord recorded four kills, two digs, and one block assist, while senior Charles Hyde had three kills, one ace, and two block assists for the Bulldogs. Redshirt junior setter Oscar Fiorentino notched 34 assists in the match to go along with three digs and two kills. Freshman libero Wilfredo Rivera recorded a match-high six digs for the Bulldogs.
Liam Maxwell paced the Crusaders offense with 11 kills on the afternoon. Maxwell also added one ace and four digs for Belmont Abbey. Brian Long notched five kills, while Brennan Davis added 21 assists, three kills, and three digs for the Crusaders.
The Bulldogs raced out to a 4-1 lead in set one following consecutive aces from V. Mandilaris. A pair of errors by Belmont Abbey increased the deficit to 7-3. A kill by Lord gave BC a 15-8 edge in the set before the Crusaders rallied for a pair of points to trim the deficit to 15-10. Following a timeout by Belmont Abbey, Barton turned its 17-11 lead into a 21-11 advantage on the heels of a 4-0 run.
A kill from Maxwell briefly ended the BC run as kills from senior Michael Perez and Lord put the Bulldogs within a point of taking the set. Perez would end the set for BC with a kill off an assist from junior Aleksa Brkovic.
Set two would stay close in the early going as Belmont Abbey cut the BC lead to 11-8 after a kill by Pierce Pliapol. The Bulldogs would respond with a pair of points to gain a five-point edge on the Crusaders. Later in the set, Barton would up its lead to 16-10 following an ace from A. Mandilaris.
The Crusaders rallied late to cut the deficit to 21-17 after a kill by Long and an ace from Pliapol. Barton closed the set on a 4-1 run to secure the 25-18 victory and take a 2-0 lead in the match. Kills by Perez and A. Mandilaris sealed the victory for BC.
Barton would see the Crusaders take early momentum in set three as Belmont Abbey took a 4-3 lead after a kill by Maxwell. The Bulldogs sensed no problems and rattled-off five straight points to take an 8-4 lead of their own and force the Crusaders to use a timeout. Hyde continued the run for BC out of the break with a kill to make a six-point stretch and 9-4 lead for the Bulldogs.
Belmont Abbey would close the gap to 17-12 following a kill by Maxwell as the Crusaders looked to trim the gap to just four points. The Bulldogs had other plans however as A. Mandilaris sparked a 3-0 run for BC to up the advantage to 20-12. Barton countered a 2-0 run for the Crusaders with a 4-0 stretch to take a commanding 24-14 lead in the set and the match.
The Crusaders would prolong the set two more points as a kill by Gavin Schaffer along with an ace made it 24-16. A. Mandilaris took a set from Fiorentino to record his 15th kill of the afternoon and complete the 3-0 sweep of the Crusaders with the 25-16 victory in the set.
The Bulldogs head to Mount Olive, N.C. next Wednesday for a matchup between two of the top teams in the league. First, serve between Barton and Mount Olive is set for 7 p.m. Barton returns home for a pair of weekend conference matches against Lees-McRae College (Feb. 23) and King University (Feb. 24).
