OWINGS MILLS, Md. --- Kevin Blankenship and Joel Dubinsky paced the Tusculum University men's beach volleyball team at the USA Volleyball Men's Collegiate Challenge on Saturday (Sept. 16) by finishing in a tie for ninth.
Tusculum has nearly a month off before hosting its first-ever event. The Pioneers will host a two-day competition on the Greeneville campus during Homecoming Weekend, (Oct. 14-15).
The freshmen duo rounded out pool play against the reigning champions from Penn State, falling 21-12, 21-18. They came out of the pool as the No. 2 seed and pulled off a come-from-behind victory over McKendree in round one of the bracket (17-21, 22-20, 15-7). Blankenship and Dubinsky faced another pair of Nittany Lions and were eliminated by PSU via a 21-15, 21-16 decision.
Colby Landry and Morgan Makovec fell in their pool finale to Daemen: 21-15, 21-5. They were seeded third from their group and matched up against Lewis. The Pioneer pair dropped their round one contest to the Flyers by scores of 21-17, 21-14.
Thiago Da Silva and Noa Svendsen finished their grouping 1-2 after their 21-17, 21-14 loss to Juniata. The TU duo took the tiebreaker over Liberty to eke out of pool play. Da Silva and Svendsen fell to a pair from the hosting Mustangs to close out their tournament journey: 21-12, 21-14.
