“Safe to say Zima is going full throttle on this serve,” Matt Sosler said over the livestream of Illinois Wesleyan men’s volleyball’s second game in the Tri I tournament on January 18, 2025. The Lakeland Muskies may have gained two points after Ben Zima, first-year libero and outside hitter, pounded his serve over the net, but the Titans prevailed over a service error the Muskies made, winning the Tri I 2-0. With an overall record of 3-0, the team matched their best start in program history.
First-years are proving themselves impressive on this team, with one first-year leading in kills each game. Outside and opposite hitter Trey Marek led game one with seven kills, and setter and opposite Ethan Kuziela gave the team nine in game two. With a recruiting class of 10 first-years, Head Coach Brandon Mueller has a lot of fresh talent to work with.
Mueller sent in a few first-year players for their career debut during this tournament with the mindset of discovering what each player can do in the collegiate setting. “I want to find out what we have. Just throw them into the fire and see what happens,” Mueller said.
Senior setter Vince DiCosola led the team in assists and digs during game two against Lakeland, having an impressive 15 assists and eight digs. DiCosola loves the versatility the addition of first-year Titans have brought to the team. Being able to switch positions easily amongst players gives the team a leg up. “Not many teams can do that,” DiCosola said.
DiCosola even shouted out the first-year player he was most impressed with in the post-game interview with Matt Sosler and Alex Bardouniotis. “I was really impressed with Ben Zima and his serving abilities, he’s been working hard on it in practice and I think he did a really good job of executing it,” DiCosola said.
In set three of the first game against the University of Olivet, five out of the six players on the court were first-years, the sixth being senior outside Luke Hartke. The atmosphere on the court was relatively fresh with Hartke being the only upperclassman and captain on the court during that set. “It’s something that we haven’t experienced, but I was really happy with it,” Hartke said. “Everyone was excited to get out there and make it happen, and it worked really well.”
As head coach since the program’s inception, Coach Mueller is looking forward to what is ahead for Titan men’s volleyball. “There’s so much joy, I can only imagine what’s going to happen in the future.”
The next home match for the Titans is on Tuesday, January 28, 2025 against Marian University at 7pm in Shirk Center.