T&T senior men’s volleyballer Daynte Stewart came up big for Orkulljunga with a match-high 28 points in a must-win Game Four of their Sweden Elitserien Men’s Volleyball League quarterfinal best-of-five series against Sollentuna Wednesday to force a Game Five.
In addition to Stewart, Tyler Nix fired down 20 points and Josiah Griffths 17 while Hampus Brink added nine, and Albin Fransson seven, in their hard-fought 25-18, 22-25, 31-29, 28-26 win at their Orkulljunga Forum, Orkelljunga to level the series at 2-2.
On the opposite side of the net, Peter Blomgren had a team-high 21 points, Jakob Molin 18, and Shawn Obgeide 16 in the loss as they now return to their home venue for Wednesday's fifth and deciding match.
On Saturday, Orkulljunga was defeated in a five-set thriller in game three, 22-25, 28-26, 29-27, 23-25, 8-15 at the Satelliten Arena in Sollentuna to fall behind 1-2 in the series.
For Sollentuna, Molin scored 31 points while Blomgren added 16 and Ogbeide 13 in the win to cancel out the quartet of Fransson, Stewart, Griffiths and Nix, who scored 21, 19, 15 and 12 points respectively for the visitors.
Last weekend in Game One, Orkelljunga, four-time league winners (1998/99, 2000/01, 2002/03, 2003/04), went under to Sollentuna 25-21, 23-25, 26-28, 21-25 before Stewart and his teammates won Game Two, 22-25, 25-18, 25-22, 25-16 on Wednesday at the Sollentuna Satelliten Arena.
In the other quarterfinal series, which continued on Monday, Habo also extended their series against Sodertelge to a fifth match by winning Game Four 25-21, 25-21, 25-20.
Hylte/Halmstad and Floby are already through to the semifinals after sweeping Lunds and Vingaaker both by 3-0 margins.
The winner of the Orkelljunga/Sollentuna series will face the winners of three of the four past titles, Hylte/Halmstad, in the semifinals, while Floby awaits the winner of the Habo/Sodertelge series.
Hylte/Halmstad entered the playoffs as tournament favourites, having topped the round-robin league phase with an 18-2 record and 55 points, eight clear of Habo (16-4), while defending champions Floby VK (15-5) were third with 45 points, one more than Sollentuna (16-4), while Sodertalge (10-10) ended in the sixth spot with 30 points, followed by Lund (9-11) with 29 and Vingaaker, in the eighth and final playoff spot with a 7-15 record and 21 points.
A former T&T Volleyball Federation (TTVF) “Player of the Year” award recipient, Stewart was named to the "Team of the Year' in the Swedish League after he tallied 302 points, the fourth best overall in the league at 4.14 points per set, which ranked tenth, and was highlighted by 30 service aces, which ranked second amongst all players.
On the defensive end, Stewart, who was awarded the “Best Scorer” accolade at the Central American and Caribbean (CAC) Games in 2023, tallied 32 blocks, all while securing six “Most Valuable Player” of the match awards.
