Kevin Pratte has enthusiastically been involved in volleyball for over 23 years. Pratte started playing in middle school and was fortunate enough to play NCAA Division 1 volleyball at The University of the Pacific. After his playing career Pratte got involved in coaching volleyball. In 2009 Pratte was the graduate assistant coach for the University […]
Kevin Pratte has enthusiastically been involved in volleyball for over 23 years. Pratte started playing in middle school and was fortunate enough to play NCAA Division 1 volleyball at The University of the Pacific. After his playing career Pratte got involved in coaching volleyball. In 2009 Pratte was the graduate assistant coach for the University of Nebraska women’s volleyball program. Later in his career Pratte made coaching stops at University of the Pacific, multiple community colleges and coached at WAVE Volleyball Club for seven years. Currently Pratte is a physical education teacher in the San Diego Unified School District, San Diego Downtown Breakfast Rotary member, a college volleyball recruiting coordinator, hosts a volleyball podcast show, the owner of the Middle Hitter website and runs a non-profit organization to help raise funds to give boys’ high school volleyball students scholarships to play club volleyball. He is excited to continue writing for Volleyball Magazine and is eager to cover the game.Connor Oldani, Grand Canyon.Isiah Fedd continued to be the point scorer for the Wildcats. For the match he had ten kills, hit .389 and had one service ace. In set three the Wildcats had the most success and showed their potential. They recorded 14 kills and hit for .233 in the set. Competing against three 2024 NCAA Championship playoffs teams will prepare them well for league play.Sotiris Siapanis led Long Beach with eight kills, Isiah Preuitt and DaniilHershtynovich added seven to the mix. Throughout the match Kellen Larson and Sebastian Rodriguez were good in the libero spot passing consistently to keep Long Beach in system.Zach Puentes, Belmont Abbey.LBSU vs FVSU: Number one nationally ranked Long Beach came into Reno and took care of business against Fort Valley. The scores in the clean sweep were (25-19, 25-17, 25-20). The Beach put on full display of their depth with six different players finishing with five or more kills. Freshman phenom Moni Nikolov led his squad to a .385 hitting percentage, dished out 27 assists, had eight digs, three aces and five kills. “Moni is very unique. He has the ability to play the complete game at an incredibly high level. In reality he could be an elite opposite, when is pretty rare for a setter,” said Coach Knipe.Moni Nikolov, Long Beach State.
Courtesy of Slate Mitchel
GCU vs Belmont Abbey: Grand Canyon came out of the gate of the Silver State Showcase with a 3-0 victory about Belmont Abbey (25-21, 25-17, 25-16). The match gave GCU an opportunity to get a lot of guys in the match. Over 13 guys got on the floor and the Antelope’s hit .324 as a team. Leading the charge for GCU was freshman Trevell Jordan out of the middle with six kills on eleven swings with a .455 hitting percentage, three digs and three block assists. Karter Rogers contributed the most kills for the Antelopes with a total of nine.After the match Head Coach Matt Werle was quoted on the GCU website, “It was nice to get some of our bench guys some time on the court. We are definitely going to have to tidy some things up. We played a lot of balls, and I think our first contact at times just really was not as clean as we would like it to be. We need to be better moving forward and make sure that we take opportunities that when we’re on the court we can get better each day.”
Jason Jones is the CEO and founder of JBJ Events brought an idea to life to run a club volleyball AAU Silver State Invitation and NCAA men’s volleyball matches at the Reno Events Center. The college teams that participated on January 31st and February 1st were eleventh ranked Grand Canyon, Fort Valley State, Belmont Abbey, and number one ranked Long Beach State. All the matches were streamed on Baller TV and free tickets were offered to all local high school boys’ and girls’ teams to help grow the game. “Jason and his entire JBJ crew deserve a lot of credit for the event and success. I think the event has a lot of potential for growth. It’s great to see volleyball growing and people excited to bring volleyball to areas that don’t historically see much men’s volleyball,” said Long Beach State Head Coach Allan Knipe.Belmont Abbey Head Coach Derek Sullivan shared his thoughts about the match, “I thought we did a good job of serving and passing. I figured both sides would have great offense with multiple first team conference players and All Americans. The game was going to come down to who could serve and pass well.”FVSU vs Belmont Abbey: The Belmont Abbey Crusaders defeated Fort Valley State Wildcats in four sets (25-21, 25-16, 19-25, 25-23). Setter Joseph Morris distributed 34 assists, and the Crusaders hit .206 on the match. In set two they had their best offense set with a .438 hitting percentage. Zach Puentas on the outside continued to be steady and consistent with a season high 15 kills.Graduate student Jarrett Anderson had a team high nine kills and hit .353. Anderson started his playing career at the Division III NCAA powerhouse Springfield College. While playing for Coach Sullivan out east he earned Division III All American honors and now is thriving at the Division I level with GCU.JBJ Events has hosted high level volleyball competitions across the country that bring the volleyball community together. At any given event you can see club, college or professionals competing. Jones and his company use these events as a vehicle to connect all these parts of the game to come together as one for a weekend. “JBJ Events is all about elevating the overall experience as well as the game of volleyball. This is more than just a tournament, it’s an opportunity for young athletes to witness high level collegiate volleyball, connect with recruiters, and compete next to some of the best teams in the country and best players in the world. JBJ Events is committed to creating next level volleyball opportunities, and this past weekend was no different,” said Jones.KP HERE Podcast: SpotifyIsiah Fedd, Fort Valley State.Throughout the match Long Beach had full control hitting .507, had three athletes recording over seven kills and only committing seven attacking errors for the match. Middle blocker Jibriel Elhaddad put up a good hitting percentage of .429 for the match. Long Beach’s service pressure, blocking and attacking were just too much for the Crusaders to handle. “These matches against top 10 programs help us in conference. Our other top teams in our conference are facing highly ranked opponents. In order to prepare for conference play, we try to seek out competitive matches,” said Coach Sullivan.Foundation website: www.kevinprattefoundation.com
KP’S Top Performers:GCU vs Fort Valley State: Number 11th ranked GCU swept FVSU (25-19, 25-11, 27-25) and played 12 players for the match. Jaxon Herr is the usual staring setter for GCU but was feeling under the weather. Freshman Kyle Zediker stepped up and dished out 33 assists. The Antelope’s did not skip a beat hitting .321 as a team and had four members of the team record over seven kills.Middle Hitter Website: www.middlehitter.comJanuary 31st Matches:Fort Valley was able to show some flashes of greatness in the match. For the third set the Wildcats hit .385 and finished up the set with 15 kills. Isaiah Fed had a heck of a match for Fort Valley, he hit for .412, had 20 kills, one ace and two block assists. Although the team total of 27 hitting errors and 17 service errors were costly in the match for the Wildcats.February 1st Matches: Courtesy of Slate MitchelCourtesy of Slate Mitchel
LBSU vs Belmont Abbey: Long Beach left Reno undefeated on the season with a 8-0 record sweeping Belmont Abbey (25-17, 25-14, 25-20). Leading Long Beach was two freshman Alex Kandev and Moni Nikolov. Kandev hails from Bulgaria and made his way on the floor for the first time this year. For the match Kandev had 11 kills, three aces and hit .786. Nikolov continued to who that he can do all aspects of the game at a high level with seven kills, hitting .636, nine digs and 23 assists.Fort Valley was limited to a .189 hitting percentage of the match. Taviian Martin put together a nice match for the Wildcats posting four kills on six swings with a .667 hitting percentage. Head Coach Larry Wrather has strategically put a difficult schedule together for the Wildcats. They have played Ohio State twice, Long Beach, GCU, Belmont Abbey and Lewis are on the schedule. “Everything is to get up prepared to compete at the highest level. As well as throwing challenges their way of seeing how we react, learning to live in uncomfortable environments so that we can grow and develop. We want to be in the top 20, so we must see what it’s like to compete with them, how they carry themselves, how they see the game, everything. I believe we will start to hit our stride as conference comes around,” said Coach Wrather. Last year the Wildcats earned an automatic bid to the NCAA tournament representing Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Conference. They are testing themselves early to prepare to make a run at this year’s NCAA tournament at Ohio State in Columbus.Belmont Abbey was led by sophomore outside hitter Zach Puentes, who had 11 kills and six digs. Junior middle blocker Jibriel Elhaddad added seven kills and hit an impressive .462. As a team, Belmont Abbey struggled hitting .103, had 20 hitting errors and recorded 13 service errors.On top of running events to connect so many people JBJ Events is dedicating to giving back. They have created a scholarship program, where at each tournament they select one boy and girl at the club level to receive a 7.00 scholarship to help young athletes pursue their academic and volleyball dreams. Woah! Pretty cool. If you have the urge to give to this wonderful cause checkout JBJ Events on Instagram and direct message them. You can follow them @j.b.jevents.
