Fontbonne box | Mt. St. Joseph box
GREENVILLE, PA -- Nazareth, ranked seventh nationally in the AVCA Division III men's volleyball poll, opened the Thiel Invitational with a pair of three-set sweeps over Fontbonne and mt. St. Joseph on Saturday. The scores against Fontbonne were 25-14, 25-21, 25-17. Against Mt. St. Joseph it was 25-18, 25-17, 25-10. Senior Brody Cord had nine kills to lead the Golden Flyers, who amassed 41 total kills with only 11 hitting errors in their victory.

Following the wins, Nazareth remains undefeated and improves to 7-0 overall. Saturday's loss was the first of the season for Fontbonne, which falls to 2-1 overall. The Golden Flyers play Lakeland and Penn State Altoona Sunday.

Against Fontbonne, the Golden Flyers set the tone for the match in the opening set as they recorded a .412 attack percentage by converting 10 kills on 17 total attempts. Junior Tim Zyburt hammered four kills on five attempts to lead all players in the set. Nazareth held the griffins to a .167 attack percentage with nine kills and five hitting errors. Leading 9-8 midway through the set, the Golden Flyers used a 9-1 scoring run to pull away. Nazareth's run was highlighted by kills from senior Luke Lawatsch, Zyburt, and junior Chris Mahan and an assisted block by Lawatsch and classmate Nick McDonagh.

In the second set, the Golden Flyers trailed 16-14 before outscoring Fontbonne 9-3 to close the match. For the set, Nazareth tallied 15 kills on 27 attacks for a .370 percentage. Consecutive kills by Cord and sophomore Kane Wittorff sealed the victory. On the defensive side, the Golden Flyers frustrated the Griffins by forcing 10 hitting errors, including four during Nazareth's decisive run.

Nazareth took the early lead and never trailed in the third set. Wittorff opened the scoring with a kill and recorded the final point with a service ace. During the set, Grant Levermore and Cord each had four kills while Wittorff finished with three. The Golden Flyers amassed a match-high 16 kills and only three errors on 24 attempts for a .542 hitting percentage.

In addition to the kills from Cord, Zyburt finished with eight kills and Richardson and Levermore had six apiece. Freshman Jake Kemp and McDonagh split the primary setting duties and combined for 35 assists. Junior Bobby Beeman recorded a team-high five digs. Lawatsch tallied four total blocks.

Against Mt. St. Joseph, Nazareth dominated from start to finish, hitting .395 as a team (40-10-76) with Levermore and senior Luke Lawatsch each collecting nine kills and Zyburt eight. Lawatsch also had eight blocks. Kemp totaled 26 assists.