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

MADISON, Wis. (Feb. 10, 2022) - After receiving votes in the American Volleyball Coaches' Association (AVCA) and ranked No. 12 in the FrogJumpVolleyball.com Top-20 poll, the Loras College men's volleyball team (7-0, 0-0 CCIW) extended their win streak to seven after taking down the Edgewood College Eagles (2-6, 0-0 NACC) for the second time in four days' time. 

The Eagles struck first in the match with a first set kill by Christopher Kahler but a service error and back-to-back kills from freshman hitter Corey Mayotte gave the Duhawks a 3-1 lead early. A hitting error spoiled the Duhawks' scoring run but another ensued immediately after, sparked by an Edgewood service error that was followed up by another Mayotte kill and two straight hitting errors from the Eagles to give the Duhawks a five point lead at 7-2. Loras held on to the lead until the middle of the set when the Eagles tied the score at 10-10, seeing the score tie eight more times until the Eagles went on a three point run to gain a two point edge at 22-20. The Duhawks' offense came alive in the end of the set, scoring five straight with four points coming from kills to rally and win the set 25-22. 

An Edgewood service ace kicked off the second set of the match but as was the same story in the first set, the Duhawks scored three straight on kills from Mayotte and Dorian Fiorenza with the run rounded out on an Eagles error. In the middle of the set, the Duhawks outscored the Eagles 8-1 with three points coming off of Edgewood errors while Fiorenza, Mayotte and Joe Horn recorded a kill apiece and Patrick Mahoney tallied a kill and a service ace in the run to go up 11-3. The Duhawks were too much for the Eagles to handle through the end of the set, closing out the game on a 6-2 scoring run to win by a commanding 25-11 margin. 

The third set of the match saw the Eagles come out of the gate hot, taking a 5-1 lead early and holding onto the lead until the Duhawks' offense kicked in, scoring four straight on a pair of kills from Mayotte, a kill from Mahoney and an ace off of a serve from Clayton Nix, tying the score at 10-10. Edgewood again came back to score three in a row to take the lead once more but errors plagued the Eagles soon thereafter, giving the Duhawks three points off of errors with a kill from Michael Dziewior helping pull the Duhawks back ahead at 14-13. The Eagles struck again to tie the score at 14 apiece but three straight Mayotte kills and an Edgewood errors catapulted the Duhawks to a four point lead at 18-14. Loras held the lead until 21-18 but the Eagles' offense ignited in the closing moments of the set to come back and score seven straight and force the match into a fourth set with a 25-21 victory. 

Fiorenza opened the fourth set with a kill assisted by Horn that was followed by back-to-back Edgewood errors to see the Duhawks gain a 3-0 lead early. The Eagles kept with the Duhawks early, though, tying the score twice before a Tucker Ziegenhorn kill started a three point scoring run that was followed by an Eagles hitting error and another Fiorenza kill go up 8-5. The Duhawks widened their lead by seven points after scoring five straight on four Edgewood errors and a Mayotte service ace to bring the score to 13-6 in the middle of the set. Loras continued to outplay the Eagles, running with the lead and outscoring the foe 10-3 at the end of the set with Ziegenhorn closing out the set with a kill to win 25-12 and take the match with a final score of 3-1. 

The Duhawks' offense hit .374 percent in the match, recording 52 kills, led by Mayotte who tallied a career-best 17 kills. Frog Jump Team of the Week member Fiorenza had 12 kills of his own while Mahoney added eight while leading at the service line with two aces to his name. Mayotte, Nix and Tyler Kratochvil recorded an ace apiece. Defensively, Mahoney kept the Eagles in check at the net with four blocks, joined by Dziewior with three and Fiorenza with two while David Beach tallied six digs in the match, followed by liberos Kevin Kessel and Cameron Menini who each had five. 

Loras is back on the road on Saturday, Feb. 12 as they travel to St. Louis, Mo. to compete against in the Fontbonne Invitational. The Duhawks are set to kick-off their weekend against the RV Fontbonne University Griffins with the match beginning at 1:00 PM.