FORT VALLEY, Ga. – The Wildcats made sure the third home match of the series did not go past three sets Friday evening. Fort Valley State used strong hitting and a key first-set ending to shut out Central State, 3-0, in the Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Conference men's volleyball opener.

After the Marauders retook the extended points lead (25-24), the Wildcats ran off three consecutive points on two Chey Cooper kills around a Jose Gallardo block for a 27-25 final. FVSU (5-4/1-0 SIAC) rode the opening ending the rest of the night.

Leading 20-19 in set number two, Isaiah Fedd downed a point and Cooper blocked another one as part of four-straight tallies for a 24-20 score on the way to a 25-21 final. The home club started the third set with a 4-1 lead and never let the margin dip under the 3-point difference and netted the final four points for the 25-16 final to end the match.

With the win, FVSU posted its first victory in five meetings with Central State. In fact, the Marauders captured 3-2 victories in each of the past two springs of the matches held in Fort Valley.

On the night, the Wildcats registered a .373 hitting percentage as a team with 38 kills on 67 swings. Fedd paced the offense with 13 kills with four errors in 17 attacks for a .529 rate to go with seven digs, an ace and one assist. Jaxon Hicks downed 10 kills with one error and 18 tries for a .500 percentage with three digs, a block, one ace and an assist. Cooper posted a .571 percentage with nine kills, one error in 14 swings while he added four digs, a pair of blocks, an ace and one assist.

Gallardo handed out 32 assists while he had one kill, two digs and a block. Raheem Thomas added three kills, Saferino Dour two kills, an ace and a block and Diego Cardona four digs.

FVSU goes for the weekend sweep as it hosts Kentucky State on Saturday afternoon (Mar. 2) in a 1 p.m. first serve and held on the campus' Woodward Gym.

-Wildcats-