Team News

Liberty University’s men’s beach volleyball team finished 3-3 in its first Men’s Collegiate Beach Volleyball Alliance tournament, sanctioned by the American Volleyball Coaches Association (AVCA), Friday through Sunday at the East Campus beach volleyball courts.

The Flames bounced back from a 5-0 opening loss to NAIA member Webber International (Fla.) University on Friday afternoon to sweep NCAA Division III Erskine (S.C.) College, 5-0, on Friday night and again on Saturday morning. Liberty then scored a 4-1 victory over Stevenson (Md.) University, another NCAA DIII program, before dropping its rematch with Webber, 5-0, on Saturday afternoon, and its rematch with Stevenson, 3-2, on Sunday morning.

“We’ve been working for over a year on setting this up,” Flames Head Coach Kaleb VanDePerre said. “Seeing the men’s beach game run the same as the women’s, in a team dual format, was incredible. It brings so much more team dynamic to the sand where you need to win three of the five courts to get a team win. Something missing from men’s beach volleyball in the past, when everything has been about pairs, was the notion of ‘team,’ and now that has fully come to life.”

VanDePerre also directed an open pairs tournament that allowed teams a chance to compete within their rosters for top seeds for future team dual tournaments.

“That is still a great format and helps prep guys for international and professional play, but the goal of growing men’s beach to the college style format was great,” he said.

On a team featuring plenty of new faces from last season, made up primarily from the men’s indoor volleyball roster, VanDePerre was excited to see many of them make their Liberty debuts.

“It was great to see some young guys step up and compete,” VanDePerre said, pointing to freshmen Josh Culpepper and Colt Fitzgerald who rotated between the No. 1 and No. 2 spots all weekend and finished 3-3, setting the tone for the team.

Senior Mason Ellenberger and graduate Cooper Guillaume missed the opening match against Webber but posted a 3-2 record in the final five matches, finishing 2-0 at No. 2 and 1-2 at No. 1 including rallying from a 14-21 loss in their opener against Erskine to win the next two games, 21-17, 15-8.

Graduate Bran Anderson and senior Tyler Wemple finished 4-2 playing at the No. 2 and 3 positions, winning three three-game matches.

“I loved to see them continue to learn how to win, and they helped us a ton,” VanDePerre said.

The Flames will next travel to Stevenson for a USA Volleyball College Beach Challenge on Sept. 10-11 in Pikesville, Md., before visiting Webber International on Sept. 24-25 for another AVCA Tournament in Babson Park, Fla.

“It was awesome to see the new format finally come to life,” VanDePerre said. “Overall, it was a great weekend growing the game we love and building community amongst ourselves and competitors. We are excited for the next team event at Webber in a few weeks.”

AVCA Men’s Collegiate Beach Volleyball Alliance tournament at Liberty University

Friday’s results

3 p.m. – Webber 5, Liberty 0

WIU 1s (Gunter Perera/Carlos Jimenez) def. LU (Josh Culpepper/Colt Fitzgerald) 21-14, 21-16

WIU 2s (Peyten Young/Carson Strawbridge) def. LU (Tyler Wemple/Bran Anderson) 21-11, 21-7

WIU 3s (Jackson Arnold/Ayden Keeter) def. LU (Zach Lamoureux/Cooper Guillaume) 21-15, 21-11

WIU 4s (Wesley Blazek/Samuel Pearish) def. LU (Matt Marcinko/Chase Keith) 21-10, 21-15

WIU 5s (Asa Sewell/Dallas Hitchins) def. LU (Bryce Weenink/Zach Bell) 21-11, 21-12

5 p.m. – Webber 5, Erskine 0

WIU 1s (Gunter Perera/Carlos Jimenez) def. Erskine (Jordan Stool/Mark Lowenberg) 21-13, 21-17

WIU 2s (Peyten Young/Carson Strawbridge) def. Erskine (Noah Vanweirn/Mikey Widmyer) 21-12, 21-14

WIU 3s (Jackson Arnold/Ayden Keeter) def. Erskine (Allen Faison/Dylan Daning) 21-12, 21-8

WIU 4s (Wesley Blazek/Samuel Pearish) def. Erskine (Matt Richmond/Cristo Rojo) 21-5, 21-19

WIU 5s (Asa Sewell/Dallas Hitchins) def. Erskine (Kaleb Hinson/Blake Carter) 21-11, 21-15

7 p.m. – Liberty 5, Erskine 0

LU 1s (Mason Ellenberger/Cooper Guillaume) def. Erskine  (Jordan Stool/Mark Lowenberg) 14-21, 21-17, 15-8

LU 2s (Josh Culpepper/Colt Fitzgerald) def. Erskine (Noah Vanweirn/Mikey Widmyer) 21-12, 21-19

LU 3s (Tyler Wemple/Bran Anderson) def. Erskine (Allen Faison/Dylan Daning) 21-15, 21-14

LU 4s (Zach Lamoureux/Chase Keith) def. Erskine (Matt Richmond/Cristo Rojo) 21-13, 21-17

LU 5s (Bryce Weenink/Matt Marcinko) def. Erskine (Kaleb Hinson/Blake Carter) 21-19, 21-11

Saturday’s results

8 a.m. – Liberty 5, Erskine 0

LU 1s (Josh Culpepper/Colt Fitzgerald) def. Erskine (Jordan Stoll/Mikey Widmyer) 21-9, 21-14

LU 2s (Mason Ellenberger/Cooper Guillaume) def. Erskine (Wiktor Ankurowski/Mark Lowenberg) 21-15, 21-16

LU 3s (Tyler Wemple/Bran Anderson) def. Erskine (Noah Vanweiren/Cristo Rojo) 21-10, 18-21, 15-10

LU 4s (Zach Lamoureux/Chase Keith) def. Erskine (Dylan Danning/Allen Pasian) 20-22, 21-19, 15-8

LU 5s (Bryce Weenink/Matt Marcinko) def. Erskine (Matt Richmond/Blake Carter) 21-11, 21-15

8 a.m. – Webber 5, Stevenson 0

WIU 1s (Gunter Perera/Carlos Jimenez) def. SU (Timothy Flanagan/Ryan Thenell) 21-11, 21-17

WIU  2s (Peyten Young/Carson Strawbridge) def. SU (Aiden O’Brien/Minh Nguyen-Christienson) 21-7, 21-10

WIU 3s (Jackson Arnold/Ayden Keeter) def. SU (Kevin Kouchoukos/Jack Braverman) 21-9, 21-13

WIU 4s (Wesley Blazek/Samuel Pearish) def. SU (JD Sarmuksnis/Justin Novoa) 21-11, 21-13

WIU 5s (Asa Sewell/Dallas Hitchins) def. SU (Daniel Stewart/Micah Ernest) 21-14, 21-18

10 a.m. – Liberty 4, Stevenson 1

SU 1s (Timothy Flanagan/Ryan Thenell) def. LU (Josh Culpepper/Colt Fitzgerald) 21-15, 21-16

LU 2s (Mason Ellenberger/Cooper Guillaume) def. SU (Aiden O’Brien/Minh Nguyen-Christienson) 21-13, 21-13

LU 3s (Tyler Wemple/Bran Anderson) def. SU (Kevin Kouchoukos/Jack Braverman) 23-25, 23-21, 15-10

LU 4s (Zach Lamoureux/Chase Keith) def. SU (JD Sarmuksnis/Justin Novoa) 21-14, 21-18

LU 5s (Bryce Weenink/Matt Marcinko) def. SU (Daniel Stewart/Micah Ernest) 21-13, 21-11

10 a.m. – Webber 5, Erskine 0

WIU 1s (Gunter Perera/Carlos Jimenez) def. Erskine (Jordan Stool/Mark Lowenberg) 22-20, 21-13

WIU  2s (Peyten Young/Carson Strawbridge) def. Erskine (Noah Vanweirn/Mikey Widmyer) 21-4, 21-7

WIU 3s (Jackson Arnold/Ayden Keeter) def. Erskine (Allen Faison/Dylan Daning) 21-9, 21-8

WIU 4s (Wesley Blazek/Samuel Pearish) def. Erskine (Matt Richmond/Cristo Rojo) 21-11, 21-7

WIU 5s (Asa Sewell/Dallas Hitchins) def. Erskine (Kaleb Hinson/Blake Carter) 21-15, 21-9

Noon – Webber 5, Liberty 0

WIU 1s (Gunter Perera/Carlos Jimenez) def. LU (Mason Ellenberger/Cooper Guillaume) 21-16, 21-12

WIU 2s (Peyten Young/Carson Strawbridge) def. LU (Josh Culpepper/Colt Fitzgerald) 21-13, 21-18

WIU 3s (Jackson Arnold/Ayden Keeter) def. LU (Tyler Wemple/Bran Anderson) 21-15, 21-10

WIU 4s (Wesley Blazek/Samuel Pearish) def. LU (Zach Lamoureux/Chase Keith) 21-14, 21-10

WIU 5s (Asa Sewell/Dallas Hitchins) def. LU (Matt Marcinko/Jaxson Smit) 21-11, 21-11

Noon – Stevenson 3, Erskine 2

SU 1s (Timothy Flanagan/Ryan Thenell) def. Erskine (Jordan Stool/Mark Lowenberg) 21-17, 21-15

Erskine 2s (Noah Vanweirn/Mikey Widmyer) def. SU (Aiden O’Brien/Minh Nguyen-Christienson) 22-24, 21-14, 15-10

SU 3s (Kevin Kouchoukos/Jack Braverman) def. Erskine (Allen Faison/Dylan Daning) 21-15, 21-15

Erskine 4s (Matt Richmond/Cristo Rojo) def. SU (JD Sarmuksnis/Justin Novoa) 15-21, 22-20, 15-13

SU 5s (Daniel Stewart/Micah Ernest) def. Erskine (Kaleb Hinson/Blake Carter) 21-17, 21-13

Sunday’s result

10:00am – Stevenson 3, Liberty 2

SU 1s (Timothy Flanagan/Ryan Thenell) def. LU (Mason Ellenberger/Cooper Guillaume)21-12, 25-23

LU 2s (Josh Culpepper/Colt Fitzgerald) def. SU (Jack Braverman/ Minh Nguyen-Christienson) 21-13, 21-9

LU 3s (Tyler Wemple/Bran Anderson) def. SU (Kevin Kouchoukos/Aiden O’Brien) 18-21, 21-18, 15-11

SU 4s (Justin Novoa/Jay Hymen) def. LU (Zach Lamoureux/Chase Keith) 21-14, 19-21, 16-14

SU 5s (JD Sarmuksnis/Doug Hines) def. LU (Matt Marcino/Bryce Weenink) 21-17, 21-14