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Fort Valley State is heading back to the NCAA Tournament – and did so in an emphatic fashion.
Setter Oshane Farquharson guided the offense to .404 attack percentage as Fort Valley State defeated Edward Waters 25-16, 23-25, 25-16, 25-21 in the SIAC Tournament finals on Wednesday in Fort Valley, Georgia.
The Wildcats with this victory secured the conference’s automatic berth to the NCAA Tournament and ended the season undefeated in SIAC play. Fort Valley State en route back-to-back SIAC championships dropped two sets in conference play the entire season and is now a 26-match SIAC winning streak dating back to last season.
Fort Valley State in the championship match hit at least .500 in two of the four games. The team also opened the match committing zero attacker errors in its nine-point first-game win.
Three Wildcats had double-digit kills and at least a .400 attack percentage in front of a home crowd of 432 people.
Outside attacker Isaiah Fedd led all players with 18 kills on a .452 attack percentage, including having three kills as part of an 8-2 run to start the match.
Middle attacker Taviian Martin had a season-high 16 kills and hit .464, while pin-hitter Jaxon Hicks added 11 kills on a .400 attack percentage.
The three players also helped stop a late Edward Waters rally and prevented the match from going to a decisive fifth game. The Tigers in the fourth game cut the deficit to 21-18 before Fedd, Hicks and Martin contributed all five kills during a 5-3 run to win the championship.
Along with the offensive performance, Hicks led all players with four aces against Edward Waters.
Fort Valley State out-blocked Edward Waters 10 to 3 highlighted with middle attacker Raheem Thomas having a match-high four blocks.
Libero Jaequon Henderson defensively contributed a match-high 13 digs, and Fedd had 11 digs.
Edward Waters in the loss was held to a .185 attack percentage and hit less than .150 in two of the games.
Pin-hitter Richard Hendricks led the Tigers with 17 kills. Rojey Hutchinson also had 13 kills on a .344 attack percentage and had a game-high seven kills in Edward Waters’ second-game win.
This is the second year that the SIAC has received an automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament. Fort Valley State in the program’s inaugural NCAA Tournament appearance last season lost to the defending national champions UCLA in the quarterfinals.