KINGSPORT, Tenn. - The Warner Men's Volleyball team's season came to a close on Saturday after falling in the AAC semi-finals to the Nationally ranked Bobcats of St. Thomas University. Warner battled with #9 St. Thomas but fell 3-0 with set scores of 14-25, 24-26, and 22-25.
Despite the Royals slow start in set 1, the team rallied in the following two sets forcing a 26th point in set 2 and falling by only 3 points in the match's final set.
Romone Rudolph lead the Royals with 10 Kills and 7 Blocks, 1 solo and 6 assisted, while also recording 1 Service Ace and 3 Digs.
Meric Akovali recorded all 28 of the Royals Assists without recording an error which brings his season total of assists to 677 and his career total to 1,641 for the Senior from Turkey.
KJ Harrison recorded a team high of 8 Digs followed by
Darion Graham with 5, while Graham also recorded 9 Kills in the semi-final match.
The Royals finish the season with a 9-15 overall record while going 7-8 in Appalachian Athletic Conference play and a semi-final appearance in the AAC Conference tournament. Warner recorded 3 set sweeps during the season including one against their Crooked Lake Rivals, Webber International University, and two against Carolina University. The Royals finished their Conference season strong going 6-2 in their final 8 regular season Conference matches dating back to February 28th to secure a 4th place finish in the AAC regular season standings.
The future looks bright for the Royals as the team will lean into the leadership of their rising Senior class and grow in depth from the valuable experience gained by their underclassmen to build upon the team's strong finish to the 2026 season.
Warner Individual Game Stat Leaders -
Kills: Romone Rudolph (10)
Aces: Romone Rudolph &
Caleb Welling (1)
Blocks: Romone Rudolph (7)
Assists: Meric Akovali (28)
Digs: KJ Harrison (8)
Warner Individual Season Stat Leaders -
Points: Darion Graham (315)
Kills: Darion Graham (258)
Aces: Darion Graham (41)
Blocks: Romone Rudolph (69)
Assists: Meric Akovali (677)
Digs: KJ Harrison (202)
#GodBlessGoRoyals | #TogetherAsOne
