Norwin grad Jake Williams hopes to lead Geneva men's volleyball to AMCC title

Jake Williams would not let his team lose.

In the huddle during a timeout, Williams, a 6-foot-1 senior outside hitter for the Geneva men’s volleyball team, exhorted his teammates to pick up their performance. Alderson Broaddus had tied their nonconference match at one set each, and Williams could feel momentum starting to slip away.

“I don’t even know if coach (Curt Conser) said much,” the Norwin grad recalled. “Basically I told them we’ve got to turn this ship around right now or we’re going to lose this game on senior day, and that’s a big deal.”

Conser said Williams hasn’t been overly vocal in his three-plus seasons with the Golden Tornadoes, but that night, he spoke up.

“He really wanted that Alderson Broaddus match,” the fifth-year coach said. “You could see it. They had a couple of pretty chippy guys on their squad. … Whether that rubbed him the wrong way or motivated him a little more than usual I don’t know, but he wasn’t going to let that one get away.”

Geneva responded, winning the final two sets over the Division II school for a 3-1 victory. And Williams did more than just talk. He backed up his words with tangible contributions to the victory: nine kills, seven aces and seven digs.

That has been typical of Williams in what has become a breakout year for him and what the Golden Tornadoes hope is a breakout year for the program. Williams is putting up career numbers, and the Geneva will be one of the favorites to win the Allegheny Mountain Collegiate Conference title.

The tournament begins Tuesday.

The Golden Tornadoes were unbeaten (10-0) in the AMCC until a 3-1 loss to Penn State Behrend on April 1.

Other than that, not much has gone wrong for Geneva, and Williams is confident his team finally can get over the hump after losing to Behrend in the title match last season and in the opening round in 2021.

“Each year we get closer and closer to the championship,” Williams said. “I don’t want to say it’s clear that we are the best team (in the AMCC) but we’re confident we’re in the top skill-wise in the conference.”

Williams has been no small part of that. He already has surpassed his career high in total kills (238 through the Behrend match) and is averaging a personal-best 2.33 kills per set. From the service line, he has been deadly, accumulating 62 total aces, or 0.62 per set, which leads the AMCC.

“The serving has clicked tremendously this year,” Conser said. “He’s always been able to hit a good top-spin jump serve, but he’s never been able to hit it consistently. He’s found his rhythm.

“You hear basketball guys talk about a foul-shooting routine. It’s similar in volleyball. We try to do that with a serving routine, and I think he’s kind of developed that.”

As far as Williams’ hitting, Conser said Williams always had the tendency to hit the ball on the way down during his jump, rather than catching the ball at the apex of his leap. That, too, seems to have been corrected.

Now, he said, Williams has perfected his timing and grasped the importance of hitting the ball high as opposed to just trying to hit it hard. He had arguably his best offensive performance of the season in the loss to Behrend, racking up a season-high 19 kills on .348 hitting.

He also had 16 digs in that match, displaying another area where his game has improved.

“In high school, I used to just react off the hit,” he said, “but (Conser) has taught me to react off the block because the ball definitely changes direction a lot more in college with a bigger block. Making a strong first move is something I have been focusing on of late.”

Williams’ impressive double-double against reigning AMCC champ Behrend — he also had two aces — illustrated his penchant for showing up in big matches. In conference play, he averages 2.97 kills per set, and 40 of his 62 aces have come against conference opponents.

“He’s a competitor,” Conser said. “We can talk about him as a player, but those instances (big matches) talk about him more as a person. I think that’s where he’s even more impressive than his skill set. He’s a warrior on the court.”

And besides setting an example for his teammates — Williams is a co-captain — he also is laying the foundation for the next era of the program.

In 2025, the Presidents’ Athletic Conference will have men’s volleyball for the first time. Geneva will join Saint Vincent, Thiel, Bethany, Grove City and Chatham in the conference. Saint Vincent and Thiel also are members of the AMCC, and Bethany, Grove City and Chatham will launch their programs next year.

Williams is proud to build that bridge even if he won’t be part of the ultimate outcome.

“I definitely value being here in the AMCC years and developing the program before it turns to a PAC team,” he said. “I think they will be strong in the PAC for the first few years as other teams start to develop. Hopefully, they’ll bring home some championships early in the PAC.”

But first, he would like to win a title in the AMCC.

“We’ve been beating teams pretty well based on the serve/receive aspect of our game,” he said. “That’s what it all starts with.

“If we can continue to strengthen that and limit our errors in (serve/receive), I think we’re going to be a great team moving forward.”