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MCVL, U.S.A. -- Fresh off their MCVL tournament upset of host Mount Union, the Baldwin Wallace Yellow Jackets will make their first NCAA Division III Men's Volleyball Championship appearance this Friday, April 21. The opponent will be the Juniata Eagles, a perennial power in Division III and the third-ranked team in last week's American Volleyball Coaches Association national top-15 rankings. Match time is 6:30p ET. Baldwin Wallace, in just its third year as a varsity program, took the MCVL tournament title this past weekend with 3-1 victories against Wittenberg (semifinals) and Mount Union (final). The Jackets also were regular-season tri-champions with those same two teams. Baldwin Wallace is coached by Kyle Mars, who started two Division III programs -- Hiram College the other -- and played collegiately at Penn State. Mars got big performances this year from first-team All-MCVL players Michael Beard and Brandon Long, and second-teamer Michael Devlin. All three also were chosen as all-tournament players with Long selected as the event's MVP. The Northeast has dominated the national rankings all season. Eleven of the top 15 in last week's AVCA poll were Northeast teams. The Eagles, an outstanding 27-2 on the season, won the Continental Volleyball Conference championship for the fourth time in school history, defeating 14th-ranked Rutgers-Newark in the championship match. Juniata's only two losses this season were to second-ranked Stevens (0-3) and seventh-ranked Southern Virginia. Baldwin Wallace, 26-7 overall, closed out the 2023 season with wins in 10 of its last 11 matches. Vassar, the top-ranked team in Division III, Stevens, and North Central (Ill.), which once was in the MCVL, join Juniata as the hosts for this weekend's first- and second-round matches. The Baldwin Wallace-Juniata winner will take on the winner of the Messiah-St. Joseph's (L.I.) match. Regional victors advance to the national semis/final at Stevenson University in Owings Mills on April 28 and 30. LINKS |