By Mia Gallagher · Sports Editor
After a successful inaugural varsity season, the Grove City College men’s volleyball team kicked off its 2026 program with faceoffs against five regional powerhouse programs, coming away with a 1-4 record to begin year two.
These five matches mark the beginning of a challenging nonconference schedule — one populated with top-20 teams and designed to prepare the young program for PAC play later this spring.
“We do have a pretty tough non-conference schedule to open the season, with several top-20 teams. Despite the challenge, I believe that this will only make us tougher. By competing against these high-caliber teams, we are more prepared and refined by the time we do reach conference play,” junior Andrew Kessler said.
Coming off an 8-4 conference record and a trip to the PAC title match last season, Kessler and his teammates believe the lessons learned last season — coupled with those to be learned against fierce, nonconference competitors — will help them achieve their 2026 vision.
“Last season was extremely successful, especially considering the fact that it was our first year as a varsity program. I think something that played a large role in that was our team culture. We were very intentional about creating a strong, Christ-centered foundation, which I believe largely impacted our success,” junior Craig Fair said.
“Our goal this year is to be back in the championship game competing for a title, and that starts with never being complacent and feeling content after last year’s success.”
This past weekend, the Wolverines opened their home schedule with a tri-match against Baldwin Wallace and Elizabethtown — resulting in two 1-3 setbacks.
After dropping a hard-fought first set to the Yellow Jackets, the Wolverines rallied to a 31-29 win in the second set. This resurgence by the Wolverines, however, came to an end with back-to-back losses in sets three and four.
Kessler led the Wolverines’ offensive charge with 10 kills. Freshman Evan DiMalanta and junior Carson Good followed Kessler with nine and eight kills, respectively. Fair supported their efforts with 34 assists. Defensively, senior Tieg Malcom paced the Wolverines with five blocks at the net, while DiMalanta and junior Max Gianneski combined for 15 digs from the floor.
Although the Wolverines rallied to take their opening set against Elizabethtown 25-19, the Blue Jays came back to clinch the remaining three sets, securing their 3-1 victory.
Pacing the offensive against Elizabethtown was DiMalanta, who tallied 12 kills in the nightcap. Sophomore Keith Otto followed DiMalanta with 10 kills, while Kessler chipped in seven. Malcolm again led the Wolverines’ defense with 10 blocks, and DiMalanta added five blocks and seven digs.
“Despite the losses to both Baldwin Wallace and Elizabethtown, I think we proved to ourselves that we do have the capability to compete with some of these top teams. Obviously, we didn’t do quite enough to win, but we took a set in each match,” Kessler said.
“These games showed us some things that we need to work on as well as some things that we did well. Overall, I think we have a ton of potential as a team this year, and I am very excited to see what we can accomplish this year,” he added.
After dropping a 1-3 road decision to Mount Union on Tuesday and hosting Carlow on Thursday, the Wolverines will travel to Erie, Pa. for a two-day quad match against Penn State Behrend, Penn State Altoona and Hilbert next weekend. Action will begin at 5 p.m. next Friday.
