Provo, Utah - The defending East Coast Conference Champion St. Thomas Aquinas College Men's Volleyball team kicked of their 2025 season by traveling across the country for a pair of matches with #6 AVCA-ranked and Division I opponent Brigham Young University in Utah.

In the opener of the weekend series on Friday night at a raucous Smith Fieldhouse, the host Cougars raced out to a 2-0 advantage in the match before the Spartans steadied themselves and found their game to make the third set uncomfortable for BYU and its almost 3,500 fans in attendance. However, a late rally by Brigham Young University in that third stanza allowed the hosts to earn a 3-0 sweep over the maroon and gold.

STAC drops to 0-1 on the season, while BYU improves to 3-0. 

Set Results

Set 1: BYU 25/STAC 11

Set 2: BYU 25/STAC 14

Set 3: BYU 25/STAC 21

How it Happened

• As a team, BYU recorded 41 kills compared to STAC's 18. The Cougars also had 3 blocks and 36 assists, while the Spartans tallied 5 blocks and 15 assists.
• Brigham Young University outhit St. Thomas Aquinas College by a .377 to .079 margin for the match.
• Andre Cippiciani paced the Spartans offense with a team-high five kills. He also seven digs and a solo block.
• Marcus Franck tallied 14 serve assists (4.67 assists/set). Franck also accumulated a kill and a block assist for the maroon and gold.
• Kyran Versteegen recorded four kills, a service ace, one dig and a block assist on the evening.
• David Weiss put together a four kill, two dig and one block assist effort against the Cougars.
• Gabriel Vieira registered three kills for the Spartans.
• Freshman Raoul Kerkdijk (Apeldoorn, Netherlands) picked up a kill, one dig, two solo blocks and a block assist in his STAC debut Friday night.

Thiago's Take

At the conclusion of Friday's season opener, Head Coach Thiago Lopes shared his thoughts on the match.

"Although we have been practicing for over a week, we struggled a little bit with BYU's offense and it took us a while to adjust to their game," said Coach Lopes. "Eventually, we were able to stabilize things and start to impose our own style of play."

"Tonight was a great test and experience, and we need to play teams like Brigham Young University if we want to raise our level of play in order to repeat as both ECC Regular Season and Tournament champs," stated Lopes. "Hopefully, we learned from tonight's match and we can execute our game plan a little bit better on Saturday night."

Up Next

STAC returns to Smith Fieldhouse on Saturday (January 11) to face BYU in the second of back-to-back matches with the Cougars. First serve is scheduled for 9:00 p.m. (EST)/7:00 p.m. (MST) and will be shown on Big10+. (A subscription purchase is required to stream the match.)