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

MEQUON, Wis. (Jan. 21, 2022) - The No. 20/RV Loras College men's volleyball team (1-0, 0-0 CCIW) opened their 2022 campaign Friday night in Mequon, Wis. as they went head to head with the Concordia University Wisconsin Falcons (1-1, 0-0 NACC) in a non-conference bout. Despite a slow start in the first set, the Duhawks kept the Falcons at bay, walking away with their first victory of the season in straight sets.

The first set of the match saw Joe Horn floor an ace on CUW's Ryan Hoefs to set the tone of the night, but the two teams traded blows early, seeing the lead change seven times before the Falcons pulled away with a three-point lead at 15-13. Back-to-back CUW errors pulled the Duhawks back within one before a kill from Spencer Herman put the Falcons back up by two. The set tied back up at 16-16 as errors plagued CUW but again it was Herman to put the Falcons back in front. The one-point lead at 17-16 proved to be the last lead CUW held in the set as a kill by returning All-Conference hitter Dorian Fiorenza tied the score back at 17 apiece while a CUW error put the Duhawks back on top. The score stayed tight in the later stages of the set but Fiorenza again sparked a scoring run for Loras, igniting three straight points to go ahead 23-20 before a kill from Michael Dziewior and a bad serve from CUW's Logan Kebisek closed out the set in favor of the Duhawks, 25-22. 

After a slow offensive start in the first set for the Duhawks, Joe Horn put home a kill to start the second set off for Loras before Dziewior added a kill of his own to hold a 2-1 lead early. With the Falcons keeping the score close in the early parts of the set, the Duhawks pulled away by going on a three-point run that was kickstarted by returning All-American middle Patrick Mahoney that was followed by two straight CUW errors to bring the score to 7-3. Loras maintained a lead in the middle of the set, pulling away by their largest margin thus far in the set at 18-12 as freshman hitter Corey Mayotte threw down a kill while Jake Filotto added an ace to bring the score to 18-12. In the closing moments of the set, the Duhawks pulled away by a comfortable eight point margin at 22-14 as Fiorenza put down another kill that was capped off by a team ace off the serve of Horn. Kratochvil sealed the deal on the second set with a kill assisted by Horn to put the Duhawks up 2-0 with a 25-20 set victory. 

For the first time in the match, the Falcons got on the board first in the third set on a kill from Kellen Gonzalez but Fiorenza brought the score even again with a kill of his own. A pair of CUW errors followed by a Mayotte kill gave the Duhawks three in a row and a 4-2 lead early. The Duhawks held on to that lead through the remainder of the set, steadily adding on to their lead with four multi-point scoring runs to pull away by eight at 16-8 on a service ace from the serve of Cameron Menini. The Falcons clawed their way back into the game, though, outscoring the Duhawks 6-1 to come within three at 17-14. Three straight Loras kills from Fiorenza, Mayotte and Horn padded the Duhawks' lead again at six but again, the Falcons came within two after grabbing back four of their own late in the set at 21-19. For the first time in the set since the score tied at 2-2, the two sides drew to a stalemate at 23-23 after CUW scored a pair off of back-to-back kills but a Kratochvil kill and a David Beach service ace drew the curtain on the match to give the Duhawks at 26-24 third set victory to take the match 3-0. 

Despite only hitting .069 percent in the first set, the Duhawks came back to dominate set two with a .320 hitting percentage and .231 in the third to average .204 percent in the match. Loras excelled at the service line, flooring nine aces on the night, led by Horn who had a career-best four in the match. Fiorenza led the Duhawks offense with 12 kills while Mayotte had six and Mahoney added five. Defensively, Horn tallied three blocks and nine digs while assisting on 30 kills. 

The Duhawks are back in action on Tuesday, Jan. 25 as they play host to the No. 4 Benedictine University Eagles. The match is scheduled to begin at 7:00 PM inside the Patrick J. Lillis Athletic and Wellness Center. Per campus safety guidelines, masks are required to be worn by all spectators.