GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. - Today the Calvin men's volleyball team returned from spring break with a 3-0 victory over the Crimson Wave of Calumet of St. Joseph with scores of 25-15, 15-19 and 25-15.
 
In the first set, after five early ties, the Knights took control when a timely kill from junior Daniel Rua (Medellín, Colombia/Colegio Canadiense) made the score 7-6. From that point forward the Knights didn't look back as Rua led the attack with four kills and one service ace. Sophomore Bryce Broekhuizen (Kalamazoo, Mich./Kalamazoo) was close behind with three kills while freshman Landon Dykema (Hudsonville, Mich./Hudsonville) and junior Justus Barbel (Aurora, Ill./West Aurora) both chipped in a service ace.
 
The second set proved to be a much closer affair as both teams traded points throughout. However, the Knights came alive down the stretch and ended the set on a 7-0 run to claim a 2-0 lead over the Crimson Tide. Freshman Trevor Munk (Lombard, Ill./Timothy Christian) recorded four kills in the set while sophomore Gavin Barber (Lowell, Mich./Lowell) added two kills and five digs.
 
The Knight took care of business in the third set with the final two points of the match coming off services aces from sophomore Carter Nicholes (Caldwell, Id./Vision Charter School). Calvin finished the night with a team hitting percentage of .207 with their best performance of .364 coming in the first set.
 
Barbel finished as the lead attacker for the Knights with six kills, an impressive .545 hitting percentage, and eight block assists. Freshman Jacob Kissinger (Lowell, Mich./Lowell) had three service aces while freshman libero Brantley Tiede (Lowell, Mich./Lowell) had a team high eleven digs. Sophomore setter Ezekiel Jalan (Oconomowoc, Wis./Arrowhead) finished the match with twenty-nine assists while freshman setter Owen Wise (Lombard, Ill./Timothy Christian) chipped in twenty-six assists.
 
COACHES COMMENTS: "We haven't played in thirteen days and it definitely showed," said head coach Aaron Sagraves. "Our plan coming in though was let's get guys in, let's play everybody, let's do some different things. We've been working on some different schemes for upcoming games, we know what's ahead of us and we scheduled this match intentionally to help us prepare. I think it's good for us to get back in the gym and get the rust off and now we have two critical days of practice before playing Baldwin Wallace on Friday."
 
UP NEXT: The Knights will be back in action on Friday, March 20th when they welcome Baldwin Wallce to Van Noord Arena for a 7 PM matchup.