Senior middle attacker Taviian Martin with a chance to win the SIAC regular season championship delivered a season-best performance.
Martin led all players with a season-high eight blocks as Fort Valley State defeated Central State 20-25, 25-23, 25-23, 25-20 on Saturday in Wilberforce, Ohio to earn at least a share of the SIAC title and the top seed for the conference tournament.
Martin after having no blocks in the first two games had a game-high four blocks in both the third and fourth games. In addition, the middle attacker had two blocks during an 8-2 run early in the fourth game to help the Wildcats complete the two-match road series sweep.
Fort Valley State finished with a season-high 15.5 blocks and had four players with at least four blocks.
Middle attacker Muhammad Mbaye had six blocks, including teaming up with Logan Rogers for the game-winning block to prevent the third game from going into overtime. Rogers and Jonathan Mathews also each contributed four blocks against Central State.
Fort Valley State out-hit Central State .181 to .144 and limited the Marauders to a negative attack percentage in the final two games.
This defensive performance came after Central State had a match-best .560 attack percentage and zero errors in its opening-game victory.
Pin-hitter Keaton Long led Fort Valley State with nine kills. Martin also contributed eight kills on a team-best .353 attack percentage and did not commit an error in the final two games.
Outside attacker Jaedyn Harris in the loss had a match-high 12 kills on a .308 attack percentage.
The Wildcats with this victory extend their SIAC winning streak to 30 matches.
Fort Valley State can clinch its third consecutive out-right SIAC regular season title if it wins one of its two remaining conference matches or second-place Benedict loses another SIAC match. The Wildcats hold the head-to-head tiebreaker against the Tigers after sweeping their two-match series.