King senior sets program record in victory vs. first-place Mount Olive

Photo courtesy of King athletics

Outside attacker Joshua Kim delivered the greatest offensive performance in program history to lead King to an upset victory.

Kim had a single-match school record 36 kills as King defeated first-place Mount Olive 21-25, 25-21, 25-22, 20-25, 15-12 in the Molten/Off the Block National Match of the Week on Saturday in Mount Olive, North Carolina.

With the decisive fifth game tied 11-11, Kim had back-to-back kills to start a 4-1 run that closed out the match. The senior, who hit .433 on a season-high 67 attack attempts, also recorded 10 kills during each of the Tornado’s victories in the second and third games.

This performance broke the previous King record by seven kills. In addition, Kim becomes the third player in NCAA Division I-II men’s volleyball since 2017 to have more than 35 kills in a match.

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Along with Kim’s school record, setter JT Deppe set a single-match program record with 65 assists and guided the offense to out-hit Mount Olive .312 to .235.

Outside attacker Jackson Carroll in the victory contributed 13 kills on a .324 attack percentage. Middle attacker Douglas Florencio had nine kills and zero errors on a .600 attack percentage, while middle attacker Aaron Milstead added nine kills and hit .412.

Both Deppe and Kim were among the four Tornado players who had double-digit digs. Deppe had a season-high 17 digs, and Kim added 10 digs against Mount Olive.

Libero Noah Melendez led all players and tied a school single-match record with 23 digs.

Mount Olive middle attacker Luke Visgitis in the loss had a team-high 16 kills on a .455 attack percentage. Outside attacker Tobi Azeez also had 16 kills along with a match-high 15 digs.

Azeez entered the weekend third in the nation with a 4.20 kills per game average. In addition, he had at least 20 kills in three matches during the team’s four-match winning streak that was snapped against King.

Mount Olive despite the loss remains in first place in the ConfCarolinas and has a one-match lead on second-place North Greenville. King moves into a tie with Barton for fourth place in the conference standings.