Kean Volleyball Preview
By: Ross Rodney I Published: February 5, 2025.
It’s that time of year again! Kean University’s Men’s Volleyball is back in action and looking to put together a memorable season.
The Cougars are led by head coach Bez Arslani. Coach Arslani is a Kean alum and earned First Team All-American honors in 2015. He is fifth inkills (667), hitting percentage (.295), and aces (67) in the university’s volleyball history.
As someone who’s familiar with the program, Arlani is no stranger to winning at Kean, and he knows what it takes to be successful.
The Cougars have started the 2025 season by earning a win against the number 13 ranked team, Nichols College, on Saturday, January 18. Nichols College is just one of the ranked teams that the Cougars faced as part of the two-day event, “ The Clash at Kean.”
Head Coach Arslani spoke about the level of competition of those four teams from the two-day event and how this may benefit his team down the road this season.
Head Coach Arslani spoke about the level of competition of those four teams from the two-day event and how this may benefit his team down the road this season.
“I think it’s going to help us understand where we want to be at the end of the season, but it also gives us a nice understanding of where we are now,” said Arslani.
With the season already underway, the Cougars are looking to be better than they were last year in many aspects, one of those being that they would like to have a better year in conference play.
“We play in one of the toughest conferences in Division III… But to go 0-8, [last year] I think everyone is coming on with that on their shoulders, and we don’t want a repeat of that… One of our goals this year is to host a CVC playoff game,” said Arslani.
As the men’s volleyball team looks to do well in conference play and reach their goals. They will be led by two amazing players, junior Chris Mitchell, who was the NJAC 2023 Co-Rookie, and sophomore Tyler Quinn, who’s coming off a freshman season in which he was the NJAC Defensive Player of the Year.
“We have a really difficult conference there’s a lot of really good teams in that conference… staying consistently strong mentally will be a big factor,” said Mitchell.
Last season a lot of the cougars conference losses were close games that could’ve went either way, the team will look to improve on that this season.
“ No one wants to do poorly in conference play this year we’re really striving every single day in practice to get better… We don’t wanna come out slow… This year, we wanna come out early and lock in a spot in that tournament as early as possible,” Quinn said.
The Cougars will begin conference play on the road on Feb 7 at Elizabethtown College and will look to start off on the right path by gaining a win.
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