Men's Volleyball | 4/7/2026 11:30:00 PM

TRAFFORD, Pa. (pacathletics.org) - Third-seeded Chatham University survived an upset bid on their home floor, while No. 5 Hiram College went on the road to pull out a win to highlight Tuesday night's Presidents' Athletic Conference (PAC) Men's Volleyball Tournament quarterfinals.

Both teams pulled out five-set victories to advance to Thursday night's semifinals. Chatham rallied from two sets down to reverse sweep No. 6 Geneva College 24-26, 18-25, 25-20, 25-19, 15-12, while Hiram came back after losing the opening set to slip past No. 4 Grove City College 22-25, 25-16, 25-17, 22-25, 15-9.

That sets up Thursday's semifinals with No. 1 Thiel College (21-8) hosting Hiram (9-13) and Chatham (15-8) traveling to No. 2 Saint Vincent College (14-4). Both matches will begin at 7 pm Thursday night.

Thursday's winners will move on to the PAC Championship Game Saturday, April 11th at the highest remaining seed. More information on the championship game will be released following the completion of the semifinals.

PAC Quarterfinal 1 - Grove City, Pa.
No. 5 Hiram 3, No. 4 Grove City 2

Grove City opened the match with a 25-22 win in the first set, recording 13 kills with a .235 hitting percentage. Hiram responded in the second set with a 25-16 win and in the third set, Hiram continued its efficient offensive efforts with 15 kills and a .345 percentage to win 25-17 and take a 2-1 lead.

Grove City pushed the match to the limit by winning the fourth set 25-22 behind 14 kills, with three by senior Tieg Malcolm (New Philadelphia, Ohio/Homeschooled), including the final point to send the match to the fifth. In the deciding set, Hiram recorded eight kills, four from junior Dakotah Welsh (Stow, Ohio/Bio-Med Science Academy) and a .375 hitting percentage. The final point came on a kill from senior Colin Brooks (Powell, Ohio/Olentangy Liberty) to send the Terriers to the semifinals for the second year in a row. Overall, Hiram finished with a .230 hitting percentage compared to Grove City’s .069.

For Hiram, Welsh led the team with 14 kills on a .357 hitting percentage. Senior Cullen Sivak (Akron, Ohio/St. Vincent-St. Mary) added 11 kills and 11 digs, while senior Derek Chiang (Markham, Ontario/Pierre Elliott Trudeau) also recorded a double-double with 10 kills and 15 digs. Freshman Liam Dwyer (Pittsburgh, Pa./Mt. Lebanon) contributed six kills while hitting .353 and had a team-leading six blocks, including one solo and five assisted. Junior Darren Chiang (Markham, Ontario/Pierre Elliott Trudeau) led the team with 28 assists.

Pacing Grove City (12-16) was Malcolm, who recorded 13 kills with a .364 hitting percentage, and junior Andrew Kessler (Jeannette, Pa./Penn-Trafford) added 10 kills on a .450 percentage. Junior Craig Fair (Stevens, Pa./Cocalico) led the Wolverines with 42 assists and senior Derrick Lambert (Denver, Pa./Garden Spot) brought up a team-best 12 digs. 

Hiram's semifinal match-up with with Thiel will be their third of the season. The top-seeded Tomcats swept both meetings in the regular season, including a 3-0 victory on Thiel's home floor on March 4th.

PAC Quarterfinal 2 - Pittsburgh, Pa.
No. 3 Chatham 3, No. 6 Geneva 2

Geneva opened the match by taking the first set 26-24, recording 12 kills with a .250 hitting percentage, and followed with a 25-18 win in the second set behind 13 kills. Chatham answered in the third with a 25-20 victory, posting 15 kills and a .256 hitting percentage. The Cougars continued their momentum in the fourth set, winning 25-19 with 13 kills to even the match at two sets apiece.

The final set was even at 8-8 when the Cougars seized control with four straight points and went on to secure the 15-12 win. Chatham recorded seven kills in the fifth while limiting errors, which hurt the Golden Tornadoes. Five of Chatham's final seven points came on service or hitting miscues by Geneva.

Chatham's winning efforts were led by junior Tim McCabe (North Huntingdon, Pa./Norwin) and junior Ben Shelestak (Pittsburgh, Pa./Fox Chapel), who finished with 16 and 15 kills, respectively. Freshman Armani George (Reading, Pa./Governor Mifflin) added 13 kills on a .500 hitting percentage. Sophomore RJ Nagg (Erie, Pa./McDowell) recorded a double-double with 47 assists and 14 digs, while sophomore John Gasiorowski (Pittsburgh, Pa./Bethel Park) contributed a team-high 19 digs.

For Geneva (9-19), junior Owen Kelley (Greensburg, Pa./Hempfield) led the team with 17 kills while hitting .240, and junior Daniel Spear (Pittsburgh, Pa./North Hills) added 14 kills on an efficient .333 percentage and finished with one solo block and four assisted blocks. Senior Andrew Ubinger (Valencia, Pa./North Catholic) directed the offense with 44 assists and contributed 17 digs.

The Thursday semifinal between Chatham and Saint Vincent will decide the season series between the teams after they split their two games during the regular season. After SVC won 3-0 in Latrobe March 14th, the Cougars won the rematch 3-1 in Pittsburgh March 28th, which was Saint Vincent's first PAC loss of the year and snapped the Bearcats' 14-game winning streak.