VWU men’s volleyball set to start first season
A new era will start Wednesday night at Virginia Wesleyan when the Marlins play their first men’s volleyball match. It will be at 6 p.m. against Roanoke, a second-year team that was 7-19 last season, at TowneBank Arena in Virginia Beach.
If you follow high school boys volleyball in Hampton Roads, you will know a lot of names on this team. All 18 Marlins grew up in Hampton Roads, according to the roster, and the best-known of them might be freshman setter Beckham Rombaoa, the 2022 All-Tidewater Player of the Year who led Indian River.
Rombaoa’s high school classmate, Matthew Sheppard, Grassfield’s Logan McConnell and Warwick’s JaMarhe Wills — also a VWU soccer player — are among the other familiar names. The Marlins will play a 26-match schedule that will end April 3. They’re being coached by Karissa Cumberbatch, who has kept the VWU women among the Old Dominion Athletic Conference’s best programs and is the school’s overall director of volleyball.
After being disciplined, undefeated Norfolk lightweight boxer Keyshawn Davis is getting ready to fight again.
The next fight for “The Businessman” is set for Feb. 8 against former two-division world champion Jose Pedraza (29-5-1) at Michelob Ultra Arena in Las Vegas.
Davis, 24, a Granby High graduate, last fought Oct. 14 against New Jersey’s Nahir Albright in Rosenberg, Texas, and he was ruled the winner by majority decision — he won 96-94 and 97-93 on two judges’ cards, while the third called it a 95-95 draw. But the Texas boxing commission changed it to no decision on Oct. 26 and suspended him for 90 days.
Reporters Ryan O’Hara and Broadway Joel said Davis tested positive for marijuana. As explained by SB Nation’s Patrick Stumberg, the Nevada State Athletic Commission voted more than two years ago to allow cannabis, but Texas has a restrictive limit of 50 ng/ml (nanograms per milliliter).
Given that the suspension was just three months — in effect, a slight postponement of Davis’ clash against Pedraza, a 34-yearold Puerto Rican — it wasn’t too serious an infraction.
Before fighting Albright,
Davis beat Francesco Patera by a lopsided unanimous decision July 22 in Shawnee, Oklahoma — two cards of 100-89 and one of 99-90. It was the last of Davis’ nine pro victories, including five by technical knockouts.
Davis was a silver medalist at the Olympics in 2021 as well as the 2019 Pan American Games and world championships.