CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa – The Midwest Collegiate Volleyball League (MCVL) has released the results of the 2024 preseason coaches poll. The Trine University men's volleyball team was voted fourth of ten teams in the conference.
Baldwin Wallace University, the defending MCVL Tournament champions, were selected as the preseason favorites with 78 votes and seven first-place votes. Tied for second were the University of Mount Union and Wittenberg University with 66 points and one first-place vote apiece. These three squads were co-champions in the regular season in 2023. The Thunder were fourth at 58 points and held the final remaining first-place vote.
For the third consecutive season, Trine qualified for the MCVL Tournament in 2023, but came up short to the host of the event, Mount Union. Last year, the Thunder finished with a record of 14-13 and were 5-3 in league action to place fourth in the MCVL standings. Head Coach William Dowdy enters his third season at the helm of the program.
"We saw a lot of growth within our program this fall and are excited to see how it will translate to this season," Coach Dowdy said. "I think this is the most talent we have seen in the MCVL, which will provide a lot of exciting matches every week of league play."
Trine returns 15 players from last year's squad, including five of the top six athletes with the most sets played in 2023. Senior defensive specialist and libero Hunter Haas has won the MCVL Defensive Player of the Year award in all three seasons he has been with the Thunder and looks for an unprecedented four-peat. Haas led the MCVL with 3.46 digs per set and led the team with 287 digs in total.
Additionally, the team's top four attackers are back in 2024 in junior Kevin Boncaro (332 kills), senior Ted Hofmeister (268 kills), sophomore Johnson-Kuhao Ho'okano-Pelekai (164 kills) and senior Matt Stillman (133 kills). Boncaro's 3.86 kills per set led the MCVL and he was tabbed First Team All-League last season. Hofmeister represented Trine as a Second Team All-League performer last year and was First Team in 2022.
Haas, Hofmeister and Stillman are joined by Nick Woolley and Landon Barrow as the team's senior class. Surrounding them are five juniors, seven sophomores and five freshmen. Trine kicks off the 2024 season on Saturday, January 13 with a tri-match at Concordia University Chicago.
