MADISON, N.J. – The Drew University men's volleyball team will make its postseason debut on Tuesday when it visits Rutgers-Newark in the quarterfinals of the Continental Volleyball Conference (CVC) Championship tournament.
 
The No. 6-seeded Rangers will visit the No. 3-seeded Scarlet Raiders with opening serve set for 7 p.m.
 
Drew, competing in its first year as a member of the CVC, finished 2-5 in conference play and clinched the sixth and final playoff spot with an epic 3-2 victory over Elizabethtown College in the team's final CVC regular-season match, which ended with a 17-15 score in the fifth set. The win capped an exciting final week of play for the Rangers, who won two of their final three CVC matches, including a 3-2 come-from-behind victory over Wilkes University.
 
With a victory, the Rangers would take on No. 3-ranked and No. 1-seeded Southern Virginia University in the second round. The tournament semifinals and final will be held at Washington and Lee University in Lexington, Virginia on Friday and Saturday.
 
In the other quarterfinal matchup, No. 5-seeded Marymount University will visit No. 4 Kean University. No. 5-ranked Juniata College is the No. 2 seed and like Southern Virginia, will receive a first-round bye. Southern Virginia will play the lowest advancing seed out of the quarterfinals while Juniata will take on the second-lowest advancing seed.
 
Under second-year Head Coach Julian Diaz, three different Rangers have averaged over two kills per set this season, which is also just the team's fourth year of existence as a varsity sport. Freshman Gio Martin has paced the squad with 2.18 kills per set while classmate Matthew Adegbite (2.09 kps) and senior Ephraim Smith (2.01 kps) are close behind. Meanwhile, freshman Quinn Donahue has distributed 6.05 assists per set.
 
Defensively, the Rangers have thrown down a team-record 184 blocks, with freshman Michael Shipman leading the way with a team-record 77 blocks (0.92 bps). Senior C.J. Addeo has contributed 0.82 blocks per set and is followed by Donahue (0.55 bps) and junior Barend Oostdam (0.48 bps). In addition, freshman libero Eric Forget leads the team with 1.82 digs per set while Smith (1.47 dps) has also made his presence felt defensively.