Tyler Wolkowicz — Student Reporter Photo: @thefriesflics
Merrimack Men’s Volleyball, with only half of its returning roster from last year’s 16-6 season, looks to bring home some wins for its 4th season at the College.
This year, Hayden West-Mather takes the mantle of Head Coach. As former Head Coach of Nicholas College Men’s Volleyball, he had a 21-15 record and made it to the NCAA Tournament, becoming the youngest Head Coach to achieve a victory in the tournament.
The season started off with back-to-back matches against Dominican University of New York, going 1 and 1 in two evenly matched and long 4/5 set games. Then traveling to George Mason and some Ivy Leagues in the Harvard Invitational, striking out in 3 for all four of these hard-fought matchups. Team chemistry and rapport have been built in these preliminary tough games, with players performing rather consistently and well individually already.
Men’s Volleyball does not have a conference, but their title match was earlier this month, where they had their second home game against #7 Brigham Young University in the MPR of the Sakowitch Center. Sophomore Dallas Birkenbeul, with the team high 121 kills, had a slow game as BYU planned well against him. This gave Mechanical Engineering major Max Tkachev a chance to shine, getting 14 successful kills on the night.
BYU was the prevailing favorite and was able to pull away pretty handily, but shoutout to MC players like 6’7 Reece Lindstrom for getting more combined assists than the entire BYU team. “This is a great experience… maintaining gratitude and competing everywhere,” says West-Mather in an interview about squaring off against this powerhouse team.
Recently, on Monday, February 16th, the Warriors played two games in the same afternoon. First going out in 4 sets against Roberts Wesleyan, but also capitalizing on their second 3-0 victory over D’Youville University, making them 3-7 overall on the season.
They will be on the road for the rest of February, but Warrior fans should be on the lookout for the upcoming home games at the Sakowitch Center with courtside seating. All home games are also on ESPN+. Even with a rocky start, the Merrimack Men’s Volleyball team is working towards solidifying themselves amongst the winningest Winter/Spring sport seasons many of their fellow Warriors are having.
