When the Presidents’ Athletic Conference opened its inaugural men’s volleyball season in January, it did so with a mixture of established programs and newer faces. Thiel was among the teams that had been around for a while, playing its first season in 2011.
As such, the Tomcats were expected to vie for the conference championship, checking in at No. 2 behind another veteran program, Hiram, in the preseason poll. Thiel did one better, running away with the regular-season title after its 3-1 (25-16, 19-25, 25-16, 26-24) win over Grove City on March 26.
It was the 11th straight win for coach Dylan Lasher’s Tomcats — the streak reached 12 on April 2 with a win over Saint Vincent — who wrapped up the title with two matches left. That earned Thiel the top seed for the PAC tournament, which begins Tuesday, and a bye into the semifinals.
“It’s exciting. The guys have been working hard for it,” Lasher said. “It was on the top of their list whenever we went into team goals for the season. It was good to see their hard work pay off.”
Lasher will leave Thiel after the men’s season — he also coached the Thiel women this past season — to become the women’s coach at Slippery Rock. His players would like nothing more than to delay his departure by way of winning a PAC title and advancing to the NCAA Division III Tournament.
And for two veteran players with ties to Westmoreland County, it would be a chance for a little redemption of their own. Norwin grads JC Govannucci, a senior, and Tyler Hussey, a junior, have served as key complementary pieces for the Tomcats in their march to the regular-season PAC title.
Govannucci has lived through the heartbreak of three early postseason exits — and Hussey two — all while Thiel was a member of the Allegheny Mountain Collegiate Conference. The Tomcats qualified for the AMCC tournament each year but never made it to the title match.
“For me, I came in with the first (recruiting) class for Dylan Lasher, so it’s kind of rewarding to see us going from always being third in the conference to proving that we can actually win this conference,” said Govannucci, a 6-foot-6 opposite hitter who has more than 500 career kills. “We’re working better as a team and showing it on the court.”
Govannucci and Hussey haven’t been regular starters this season, but both have delivered when their numbers are called. Both average 1.35 kills per set, and each has had his moments in key matches.
“JC brings a wealth of experience,” Lasher said. “He’s been around the game. He knows our offense. He knows what I want to see on the court.
“Tyler is a workhorse. He’s always in the weight room. He’s always doing that little bit extra.”
Hussey had nine kills in a 3-1 win over a strong Buffalo State team March 23. Buffalo State had swept Thiel in an earlier meeting. He had six kills and a pair of block assists in the conference-clinching win over Grove City.
Govannucci had six kills and three digs in a 3-1 win over Hiram on March 1. As with Buffalo State, Thiel had lost to the Terriers, 3-0, in an earlier meeting, which took place at the Baldwin-Wallace Tournament, so it did not count as a conference match.
“We definitely wanted redemption on them, especially because the first time we played them we lost in three,” Hussey, a 6-2 outside hitter, said. “The fact that the second time around we played them it was conference, we wanted that win so we could have a chance at the conference title.”
The wins over Buffalo State and Hiram in the second meetings show Thiel is trending in the right direction and improving as it ramps up to the PAC Tournament. During the 12-match winning streak, only two went past four sets, and four were straight-set wins.
Govannucci said the biggest area of improvement for the team collectively has been blocking. With a taller team by D-III standards — including 6-9 junior middle Kaleb Proudfoot and 6-6 sophomore middle Bryce Lizanich — the Tomcats have been able to impose their will defensively.
In the top-seed clincher against Grove City, Thiel held the Wolverines to .167 hitting. In PAC play, the Tomcats are holding their opponents to a measly .139 percentage.
“We can control the net,” Govannucci said. “When (the opponent) is setting a ball, they have to be perfect, or we’re going to get our hands on it for a block or a block touch and make it easy for our defense to play off of us.”
Hussey said all the players have bought in to going the extra mile to win a championship.
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“Everyone has the goal of we want to win and want to do whatever it takes to get to that next level,” he said, “whether it’s spending time in the gym, lifting or getting extra reps or getting better communication on the court, off the court. Everyone’s mentality this year has been tremendous.”
Carrying that mentality into the PAC playoffs will be important, Govannucci said. As one of five seniors on the team, his job, as much as anything that might show up on the stat sheet, is to keep the team focused.
The top seed is secured. The team’s place in PAC men’s volleyball history is secured. Now it’s time to reset for a big finish.
“Our record is going to be 0-0 going into this,” Govannucci said. “It doesn’t matter what we did the first two times we played against these teams. We have to win this one game. We need to go 1-0 that day.
“It’s not about the past. We can only control what we can control now.”
Added Hussey: “I think we’re all ready to keep our heads down and ready to go in and go for it. And it helps a lot having the home-court advantage with the energy everyone brings to our games.”