LORETTO, Pennsylvania – The University of Maryland Eastern Shore men's volleyball closed its inaugural season as a program in the semifinals of the 2026 NEC Championship semifinal against No. 2 FDU, 1-3. The Hawks qualified as the No. 3 seed after going 7-5 in the conference in the regular season. 

The Score 

Maryland Eastern Shore Hawks (17-11) - 1 

Manhattan Jaspers (14-12) - 3 

(25-19, 23-25, 23-25, 23-25) 

How It Happened 

In the Hawks' first postseason, Andre Mills got UMES rolling right off the start with the first kill of the match. FDU, though, ran off five straight points before the Hawks answered with a five-point run of their own as Joshua Hightower powered through a pair of kills while Tristan Rowley and Mills each added one of their own before FDU committed an attacking error to cap the run as UMES took a 8-7 lead. Each side traded the lead evenly through the majority of the set before UMES took the lead for good on a three-point run with a pair of FDU errors and a kill from setter Kenyon Haynes. UMES closed the first set on a 4-1 run with another pair of FDU errors while Mills added another kill and Chase Valentine clinched the opening set with a kill of his own. 

The remainder of the match remained closely knotted as neither side gave much ground. Neither side managed more than a one-point lead until FDU pulled ahead 10-7. Even then, however, UMES answered with a 4-1 run with Mills and Valentine kills, another FDU error and a service ace from Valentine to tie the score at 11. While FDU pulled ahead, again, the Hawks put the pressure on the Knights with a 5-1 run to take a 18-17 lead behind a pair of FDU errors, kills from Rowley and Valentine, and a service ace from Marcellus Owens. Though UMES kept the score close, FDU eked out a 25-23 win to even the score at 1-1. 

UMES took the early lead in Set 3 with Hightower putting the Hawks ahead by two with back-to-back kills to open the set. The Hawks continued to put distance between themselves and the Knights on a 5-1 run with three kills from Valentine and a pair of FDU errors to take a 7-3 lead. UMES led by as many as five points, 12-7, before the Knights rallied and took the lead on a 9-1 run, 16-13. UMES battled until the end of the set, coming within one point twice in the waning exchanges before FDU took a 2-1 lead with another 25-23 win in Set 3. 

The fourth set started in a similar fashion to Set 3 as UMES took an early 4-1 lead on three FDU errors and a Hightower kill. Both sides knotted the score at seven before FDU took a 11-7 lead on four straight points. UMES tied the score again at 13 on a Jaxon Clark kill, and again at 14-14 on a Clark kill before Clark ripped off two more kills for three straight points before Valentine capped a 6-1 run with a service ace to take a 17-14 lead. UMES took a 22-19 lead before the Knights took the lead on a five-point run before FDU took its third straight set against the Hawks, 25-23. 

The Numbers 

• Junior Andre Mills led UMES with 17 kills while leading all players with a 57.7% hitting efficiency. Mills also added a service ace, a block and four digs. 

• Joshua Hightower and Tristan Rowley each hit double digit kills with 14 and 10, respectively. Hightower added four digs while Rowley added another seven. 

• Chase Valentine led the team in blocks with two block assists and a solo block while also adding nine kills, two service aces, an assist and two digs. 

• Setter Kenyon Haynes put up over 50 assists for the fourth straight match with 56. Haynes also had two kills, a service ace and nine digs. 

• The UMES liberos notched seven digs as Jarrett Key totaled four and Edward Piloton Jr added three. 

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