Follow
This time it was halfway across the world from West Virginia, but Charleston outside attacker Max Senica had another big offensive performance in a signature win.
Senica finished with 13 kills as Australia rallied from a two-game deficit and beat the host nation Bahrain 16-25, 17-25, 34-32, 25-22, 15-11 in the Round of 16 at the Asian Men’s U20 Volleyball Championship on Wednesday.
The team captain was one of three Australian players with double-digit kills to help the nation qualify for the quarterfinals against South Korea. In addition, the Volleyroos are now one win away from achieving their best finish in the bi-annual tournament’s history.
This was the third consecutive match that Senica was among the top-three Australian players in kills. He also had a team-high nine kills in a pool-play victory against Kazakhstan that clinched Australia’s Round of 16 berth at the Asian U20 Championship, which is a qualifying tournament to the FIVB U21 World Championship.
Senica is one of two NCAA players on the Australian roster.
Senica as a freshman last season with Charleston was in the EIVA’s top 15 averaging both 2.45 kills per game and 1.70 digs per game. Among his top performances included earning Off the Block/Springbak, Inc. National Freshman of the Week honors after having a combined 21 kills and 14 digs in back-to-back victories against Princeton for Charleston’s first conference wins in program history.
Along with Senica, USC incoming freshman outside attacker Izac Carracher came off the bench in three of the five games against Bahrain.
Australia’s quarterfinals match versus South Korea will be the highest ranked opponent it has played so far at this tournament. South Korea is No. 18 in the FIVB World Rankings and the third-highest ranked team in the tournament field.