Contact: Emily Adlfinger, Director of Athletic Communications, 563-588-7970

Jan. 24, 2020 – The Loras College men's volleyball team (1-0) opened the 2020 season at home on Friday evening with a swift 3-0 sweep against Rockford University (0-2) and saw multiple newcomers post excellent starts to their college careers.

Senior Ian Walsh scored the first point of the season to put Loras ahead 1-0 in the first set, but the Regents capitalized on a service error by the Duhawks and Jeremy Weaver served up an ace to take the lead. Freshman Dorian Fiorenza answered back with a kill off the hands of Patrick Hollander and added a service ace a few points later to give Loras a 6-4 lead, but Rockford showed its determination to hang close with the Duhawks and tied the set 6-6 off a block by Weaver and Jorge Pando.

It was the last lead of the set for the Regents as the Duhawks began to build momentum, scoring four-straight points off a kill from Andres Martinez and three-straight service aces from Kessel. Rockford continued to chip away at the lead, keeping the Duhawks within five for the middle portion of the set until Walsh sparked another four-point run en route to a 25-17 first-set win.

The Duhawks wasted no time jumping ahead to an early lead, keeping the Regents off the board for the first five points. Multiple attacking errors by Rockford played in favor for Loras as well as three kills from Fiorenza, two from Walsh and one each from David Beach and freshman Jake Filotto, all helping the Duhawks win the second set 25-14.

Loras led from the start of the third set and never let up, extending the lead 10-3 off back-to-back service aces from Beach. The Duhawks took a 20-9 lead off a kill from Filotto and Kessel continued his stellar servicing with another service ace to put Loras ahead by 12. The lead was far too much for the Regents to overcome and freshman Max Ellenbecker hit home the game winning kill off the hands of fellow first-year Joe Horn to give the Duhawks the first home-court win of the season.

Fiorenza led all players with 11 kills while Walsh and Martinez each had seven. Kessel had five service aces while Beach had three and Fiorenza added two of his own and Hollander tallied 24 assists. As a team, the Duhawks ended the night with a .477 hitting percentage, highlighted by a .609 clip in the third set where Loras had 16 kills and only two errors on 23 attempts. Loras also scored 12 points on service aces.

The Duhawks travel to the east coast for a week's slate of matches, beginning with Marymount University on Wednesday, Jan. 29 at 7 P.M (ET) in Arlington, Va.