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

ST. LOUIS, Mo. (Feb. 12, 2022) – The RV/No. 12 Loras College men's volleyball team (9-0, 0-0 CCIW) made the trip south to St. Louis, Mo. on Saturday to compete in the Fontbonne Invitational, hosted by the RV Fontbonne University Griffins (7-2, 0-0 MCVL). The Duhawks completed the season sweep over the Griffins with a 3-1 win before taking on the Concordia University Chicago Cougars (1-7, 0-1 NACC). A straight set sweep over the Cougars brings the Duhawks' win streak to nine matches to start the season.

The first match of the day featured the Duhawks and the Griffins, seeing the two foes square off for the second time in a week's time. The last time the two teams met, Loras downed Fontbonne in straight sets, and the momentum carried into Saturday's match.

Fontbonne jumped ahead by three right out of the gate, but the Duhawks pulled back within two at 6-4 on a Corey Mayotte kill that was followed by an attacking error by Fontbonne's Cameron Graves. Fontbonne pulled away again by five at 10-5 before the Duhawks outscored the Griffins 4-1 in the middle of the set on kills from Patrick Mahoney, Dorian Fiorenza and Andres Martinez with the run rounded out by a Fontbonne error to bring the score to 11-9 in favor of the Griffins. The Duhawks held tight with the Griffins through the end of the set but Fontbonne walked away with a 25-19 set victory to go up 1-0.

Set two was a back-and-forth game early, seeing the score tie a total of nine times before Mayotte tallied another kill that was followed by another Graves error for Fontbonne to see the Duhawks go up by two at 12-10. Fontbonne tied the score back up three more times after and took the lead at 15-14, but Loras capitalized on a bad serve that was followed by a kill from Tucker Ziegenhorn that gave the Duhawks the lead once more at 16-15. The two sides continued to keep each other close with the Duhawks overcoming a 19-18 deficit to score three in a row on another trio of kills from Mahoney, Fiorenza and Martinez to go ahead 21-19. Fontbonne crawled back to tie the score once more at 22 apiece but back-to-back errors put the Duhawks at set point with Fiorenza at the service line, seeing the game end on a service ace to give the Duhawks a set victory at 25-22.

As was the story in the second set, the third set started with the score tying three times before Fontbonne went up by three at 6-3. Down by three, the Duhawks' offense ignited, scoring four straight on kills from Martinez, Ziegenhorn and Mayotte with the run rounded out by another Fiorenza ace to put Loras in the lead at 7-6. Loras held the lead through the middle of the set, fighting off the Griffins' pressure until they score four straight on a kill and three Loras errors to see the score tie at 18-18. Again, the Duhawks' offense took off, scoring four in a row on a pair of Mahoney kills, a kill from Fiorenza and a Mayotte service ace to go back ahead 22-18. Fontbonne tried to make a comeback in the end of the set but Fiorenza shut the door on the set again with a set-ending kill to give the Duhawks a 2-1 advantage after three sets with the 25-21 set win.  

Mahoney put the Duhawks on the board first in the fourth set, and keeping with the trend of the day, the score tied three times before the Duhawks went on a dominant eight point run that saw Fiorenza and Ziegenhorn tally kills while junior setter Joe Horn floored two aces at the service line to go ahead 10-4. Both sides traded scoring through the middle of the set but the Duhawks' lead was too much to handle, with Fiorenza scoring three straight on a kill and back-to-back service aces to widen Loras' lead to nine points at 20-11. Fiorenza continued to assert his strength in the game and finished the set for the third straight set with a set-ending kill to see the Duhawks take the game 25-18 and win the match 3-1.
 
The Duhawks' offense hit .262 percent with Fiorenza leading the charge, tying his season-best performance with 16 kills while adding four of the Duhawks' eight service aces in the match. Mayotte added 13 kills of his own and Mahoney added 11 while Horn floored two aces with David Beach and Mayotte had one apiece. Defensively, Martinez held down the net with three blocks, joined by Fiorenza and Ziegenhorn added two each. Horn had a season-high 46 assists at setter while libero Kevin Kessel put up 13 digs in the match as the Duhawks completed the season sweep of the Griffins.

In the second match of the day, the Duhawks took on the Cougars from Concordia Chicago, seeing the match begin with a pair of Cougars errors to give the Duhawks a pair of free points. Concordia came back to score four in a row to take the lead back but errors continued to plague the Cougars, seeing a trio of errors tie the score back up at five a side. After the Cougars took the lead once again at 7-5, the Duhawks score four straight on a kill from Horn that was followed by back to back errors and rounded out by an ace off of the service of Horn to bring the score to 9-7 in favor of Loras. The score remained close through the middle of the set but the Duhawks exploded in the end of the set, outscoring the Cougars 10-1 to close the set with a final score of 25-14.

Early in the second set, the Duhawks took a 3-1 lead but the Cougars tied the score back at three apiece. The score tied twice more before a Mayotte kill sparked a three point run that gave the Duhawks the lead once again at 8-5. In the middle of the set, the Duhawks' offense again took off with kills from Martinez and Tyler Kratochvil putting down kills while Beach floored an ace to widen the lead to six at 17-11. Loras held Concordia to just five more points in the set while closing out the game scoring back-to-back points on a Cougars error and a Ziegenhorn kill to bring the score to 25-16 in favor of the Duhawks.

 Both sides battled in the early part of the third set with the score tying a total of 10 times before Martinez notched a kill to bring Ryan Floyd up to the service line where he floored a kill that was followed by another Martinez kill and another from Kratochvil to bring the score to 14-11. Later in the set, the Duhawks outscored the Cougars 7-3, going on two three-point scoring runs to bring the score to 21-14 before back-to-back errors closed out the match with a final score of 25-15 to give the Duhawks their second victory of the day.

Mayotte led the Duhawks' offense that hit a solid .500 percent in the match with 12 kills while Martinez and Kratochvil posted seven each. At the service line, the Duhawks dominated with nine service aces with Kratochvil flooring a career-best four aces while Dziewior added two and Beach, Horn and Floyd had one apiece. Dziewior held down the net defensively for the Duhawks with four blocks, joined by Martinez and Kratochvil with two each while Kessel put up five digs in the match.

The Duhawks continue action in the Fontbonne Invitational on Sunday, Feb. 13 as they take on the Trine University Thunder. The match is scheduled to begin at 10:00 AM.