Babson Park, FL – The Webber International Warriors men's volleyball team woke up Saturday morning with an undefeated record to defend against the Life University Running Eagles. The rolling Warriors kept up their terrific start to the 2024 season by defeating the Running Eagles 3-1 in four sets.
 
The Warriors jumped on the Running Eagles quickly in set one behind a kill from Daniel Beacham and Carson Barnes who started a 4-0 run with Kevin McCarthy serving up two aces to give the Warriors an early 5-2 lead. The running eagles would jump right back into the game and score three straight points to tie the game at five a piece. Barnes and Thoralf Schmelzer would combine for a pair of kills to help push the Warrior lead to their largest of the game at 10-6. After another run from Life, Schmelzer and Beacham would rack up another kill a piece over the middle portion of set one to push the lead back up to 12-9. Gunter Perea would help sustain the Warriors advantage through the latter part of the set, striking down on two kills, both set up the assist man himself, Ayden Keeter who finished set one with 11 assists. Barnes would get five kills total over the first set and help the Warriors cruise to a 25-18 set one victory.
 
Set two would prove to be more a contest from the Running Eagles as they would scratch and claw through the entire set. The Running Eagles would jump to an early 2-0 advantage, but the Warriors answered back with a kill from Schmelzer. Beacham would get the next Warriors kill to even the score at 3-3. After a few service errors from both teams, a Perea kill and Barnes ace would give the Warriors a 7-5 advantage for their first lead of the set. The Warriors would eventually take a timeout after the Running Eagles put a run together and extinguished the Warriors lead to tie the game 10-10. Out of the timeout, McCarthy would be set up by Keeter for the attack and kill as it would lead into a back-and-forth middle portion of set two. Barnes would rack up another two kills over this portion of the match, with Keeter also earning himself a kill before the game was tied at 15-15. The game would eventually meet a dead knot tie at 25 with the Warriors set to serve. Life would take the first point on a kill, but they would have a serving error on match point to even the score back up at 26-26. With Schmelzer serving, Andrew Nielsen would be set up by Keeter to give the Warriors the 27-26 lead. Schmelzer would handle business himself with an ace to win the Warriors set two 28-26.
 
The Running Eagles would not go away without a fight though and started off set three on a 7-1 run. The Warriors would bounce back and bring the score within two multiple times, but never be able to pull the game in their favor as the running eagles would win set three wire to wire 25-21.
 
The Warriors would understand the momentum shift and start set four on a 6-0 run, followed by a Life timeout. Schmelzer would rack up another four kills to set four and bring his total to 18 for the game. Barnes would follow closely behind his teammate with 15 kills of his own with Perea tacking on another eight kills throughout the match. Keeter would post a season high 45 assists through four sets, and the Warriors took set four easily from the Running Eagles, 25-17 to win their fourth game of the season 3-1.
 
The Warriors will hit the road and travel up to Laurinburg, NC for another conference game against St. Andrews University next Friday, February 23 at 5:00 PM.
 
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