Malibu, Calif. - The two-time defending East Coast Conference Champion St. Thomas Aquinas College Men's Volleyball team kicked of their 2026 season by traveling to the Golden State for pair of matches with AVCA-ranked Division I programs on Friday and Saturday.

In the opener of the weekend West Coast tour on Friday night against No. 4 Pepperdine University, the Spartans gave the Waves all they could handle in the first two sets, before running out of steam in a 3-0 sweep at Firestone Fieldhouse.

STAC drops to 0-1 on the season, while Pepperdine moves to 1-0.

Set Results

Set 1: PEPP 25/STAC 18

Set 2: PEPP 25/STAC 17

Set 3: PEPP 25/STAC 12

How it Happened

• As a team, Pepperdine recorded 32 kills compared to St. Thomas Aquinas' 24. The Waves also had 9 blocks and 30 assists, while the Spartans tallied 3 blocks and 23 assists.
• Pepperdine outhit STAC by a .500 to .088 margin for the match.
• Kyran Versteegen paced the Spartans offense with a team-high eight kills. He also registered two digs.
• Marcus Franck tallied a team-high 20 serve assists (6.67 assists/set). Franck also accumulated a kill, three digs and a solo block for the maroon and gold.
• Freshman Jakob Schwarz (Mainz, Germany) picked up five kills, a serve assist, four digs and a block assist on Friday evening.
• David Weiss racked up five kills, two service aces and two block assists against the Waves.
• Rookie Ylan Tapper (Garfield, N.J) contributed four kills and two digs.
• Ivaylo Todorov accumulated four total digs in the match.
• Newcomers Luis Grath (Fr.|Bruehl, Germany), Arlo Lindkvist (Fr.|Stockholm, Sweden), Santiago Valenca (So.|Lisbon, Portugal), Alan Santiago (Fr.|Humacao, Puerto Rico), Lourenco Dias (Fr.|Lisbon Portugal) and Gustavo Reinert (Fr.|Joinville, Brazil) all also saw their first regular season action as Spartans.

Up Next

STAC returns to action on Saturday (January 10), facing the No. 5 ranked University of Southern California Trojans at the Galen Center in Los Angeles. First serve is scheduled for 8:00 p.m. (EST)/5:00 p.m. (PST) and will be shown on Big10+. (A subscription purchase is required to stream the match.)