Contact: Nathan Cameron, Assistant Director of Athletic Communications, 563-588-7243

NAPERVILLE, Ill. (Mar. 10, 2021) - The Loras College men's volleyball team (4-4, 3-3 CCIW) was on the road Wednesday night in Naperville, Ill. as they took on College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin (CCIW) foe No. 14 North Central College (6-2, 4-2 CCIW). Dorian Fiorenza continued his strong season for the Duhawks offensively, posting season-high 15 kills against the Cardinals. After forcing the first set into extra points and fighting back in the third set to take a 25-18 set victory, the Duhawks fell three sets to one (25-27, 14-25, 25-18, 21-25). 

After the Cardinals scored the first point of the first set, a service error and a bad set both by North Central's Matt Nealon put the Duhawks up 2-1. North Central posted a pair of points but Tyler Kratochvil tied the set at 3-3 before the Cardinals pulled away with a three point lead shortly after. Loras played tight with North Central through the midway portion of the set, trailing by no more than three points until the opposition took a five point lead at 16-11 after going on a three point scoring run. That sparked the Duhawks' offense, however, seeing Patrick Mahoney add a kill that was followed by an error from North Central's Jake Miller. Fiorenza rounded out the Duhawks' scoring run with a kill assisted by Joe Horn to pull Loras back within two. As the set moved forward, the Duhawks kept the fire coming and tied the match at 24-24 on back to back errors from North Central. The two teams traded a point each before North Central ended the set with two straight points to solidify a 27-25 victory. 

As was the story in the first set, the early part of the second set saw the score stay extremely close, with the score tying six times and the Duhawks taking the lead three times before North Central took a four point lead after recording five straight to go ahead 12-8. The Cardinals kept their attack coming in the second set but were disrupted by Mahoney and Fiorenza who added a combined five kills for the Duhawks in the set but the effort came up short as the Cardinals pulled away with a 25-14 victory. 

Down two sets to none going into the third, the Duhawks looked to crack down and push the match into a fourth set with a set victory in the third. Back to back scoring from both teams saw the score tie three times before the Duhawks took a lead and ran with it, scoring three straight on a kill from Jake Filotto that was followed by a pair of attacking errors committed by North Central. A Duhawks service error put a point back in favor of the opposition but back to back kills from Kratochvil and Fiorenza took the Duhawks' lead to 8-4. The Cardinal added three more back but the Duhawks outscored North Central 4-1, highlighted by Mahoney who put down two back to back kills while Mahoney added one and a bad serve from Jared Moser gave Loras a 12-8 lead just under halfway through the set. Loras continued to bring the heat scoring three straight on North Central errors but a kill from Moser ended the streak. Andres Martinez followed Moser's kill with one of his own that was immediately followed by two straight attacking errors off the hand of North Central's Jake Miller to put the Duhawks up 20-15. The set ended on a four point scoring run by Loras with Mahoney posting two kills and Fiorenza with one in the run. The set went on to end on a North Central error to give the Duhawks a strong 25-18 set win. 

Loras rode the momentum from set three into the fourth set of the match, taking an early 3-1 lead on the Cardinals with Mahoney and Fiorenza putting down a kill each in a three point scoring stretch. North Central immediately took the lead back by putting up four straight but a service error gave the Duhawks a point to stop the run to bring the score to 6-5 in favor of North Central. The Duhawks stayed within one after trading blows with the Cardinals, but the CCIW foe quickly took a six point lead after putting up five straight on the board. Later in the set, Kratchovil threw home a kill assisted by Horn that was followed by a Duhawks service error but Andres Martinez answered the error by putting down a huge kill from Horn. A Cardinals attacking error brought the Duhawks within three late in the set at 20-17. The Duhawks fought hard through the remainder of the set to force the match into a fifth set, but North Central emerged victorious, taking the fourth set 25-21. 

Fiorenza led the Duhawks in kills on the night with a season-high 15 kills, while Mahoney followed with 14 of his own, hitting .464 on the night. Mahoney also excelled at the net defensively for Loras with a match-leading season-high seven blocks, joined by Martinez and Kratochvil who added five and four, respectively. Horn had an impressive 37 assists in the match while Kevil Kessel had eight digs for the Duhawks. 

Loras returns to Lillis Court on Wednesday, Mar. 17 as they host the No. 3 Carthage College Firebirds in a CCIW matchup. The match is due to begin at 7:00 PM.