On March 18, the Baldwin Wallace Yellow Jackets men’s volleyball team were able to sweep the Wittenberg Tigers and earned their 20th win of the campaign. However, things were not as easy as one might expect for a sweep, as all three sets were very tight and competitive.
The win propelled the Jackets to their 12th straight set win dating back to March 11 when they blanked Wisconsin Lutheran.
Junior accounting major and outside hitter Michael Beard said that their victories have been a result of hard work and leadership.
“A lot of hard work and practice. Coach [Kyle Mars] is putting together a great game plan, and we’re just going out there and executing,” Beard said.
BW won the first set 25-23, the second set 25-19, and the third set 25-21. Right when everyone thought Baldwin Wallace would win the third set with ease, Wittenberg came back and made the set look interesting.
The Tigers scored four straight points, leading to Coach Mars burning a timeout before the team grouped together and got the last point of the game to win it.
Beard led the Yellow Jackets with 21 points, 16 kills and nine digs.
The Yellow Jackets made their lives harder with self-inflicted errors, including 19 service errors, six more than the Tigers that day.
The win, and a follow up 3-2 victory against Adrian (Mich.) on March 21, set BW up for a big matchup with its conference foes the Mount Union Purple Raiders on March 25.
“It’s probably gonna be our biggest game of the year and certainly our most impactful home game,” Beard said. “They lost to Wittenberg [on March 17], so they’re gonna have a chip on their shoulder next weekend, and we gotta take care of business.”
The Yellow Jackets fell short against Mount Union, suffering just their fourth 3-0 sweep. The scores of the three sets were 25-21, 25-14 and 29-27.
BW’s three remaining regular season fixtures include away stints at Fontbonne (Mo.) and Wabash (Ind.) and an April 6 home finale hosting Indiana’s Trine University Thunder.