by Logan Tyler
The athletic department announced in the summer of 2021 that men’s volleyball will be the 23rd NCAA sport offered at Roanoke. This announcement follows the decision to add men’s wrestling to the list of sports offered at RC, which started competition in the fall of 2021. The men’s volleyball team will have their inaugural season in the late winter of 2023, but they have already started preparing for competition with practices this fall. The Maroons will be the 10th member of the Continental Volleyball Conference which includes the likes of Eastern Menonite University and Randolph-Macon College, who are also a part of the Old Dominion Athletic Conference.
Matt Reinsel will lead the Maroons as head coach. Reinsel comes from a successful playing and coaching background, playing Division III volleyball at Carthage College in Illinois. While at Carthage, Reinsel earned the 2019 AVCA Division III Men’s Player of the Year and the 2019 Midwest Collegiate Volleyball League Offensive Player of the Year. After graduation, Reinsel stayed at Carthage where he was a graduate assistant for two seasons. In his last season with the Firebirds, Reinsel helped lead the team to a 23-0 record including the NCAA Division III Men’s Volleyball National Championship.
Pierce Faulcon, a freshman on the team at RC, said he is looking forward to playing more with the team and strengthening team chemistry. He also said he sees a lot of potential for the team in Fall practices so far. “I’m excited for the season,” Faulcon said. “It’s a special feeling because we’re the first team ever at Roanoke. I think that’s special for the whole school, too”. Faulcon, who has been playing volleyball since his sophomore year of high school, said at first he wasn’t looking to play volleyball in college, but once he got more involved in the sport he became more interested in playing at the collegiate level. He decided to commit to RC because he liked the campus and he got an offer to play volleyball.
Faulcon has confidence in Reinsel’s capability to lead the team based on his extensive background as a coach and a player. “I feel very confident having Coach Reinsel because he was a star college athlete, being All-American all four years,” Faulcon said, “so I’m definitely not worried about his ability to lead our team”.
The men will look to start their season off strong with their first match against Wittenburg University in Ohio on January 13, 2023.
