Contact:
Nathan Cameron, Assistant Director of Athletic Communications, 563-588-7243
Mar. 18, 2022 - The RV/No. 15 Loras College men's volleyball team (16-4, 5-2 CCIW) kicked off their three-match homestand on Friday night inside the Lillis Athletic and Wellness Center as they played host to the No. 2/3 Dominican University Stars (15-1, 7-0 NACC) for a non-conference tilt between two nationally-ranked programs. The Duhawks took the first two sets but the Stars fought back to force the match into five sets.
Andres Martinez got the Duhawks rolling in the first set, opening the match with a huge kill assisted by
Joe Horn before the Stars jumped ahead by three at 5-2. Back-to-back Dominican errors followed by an ace by Martinez tied the score back at five a side before Loras went on a dominant six-point scoring run that featured kills from
Corey Mayotte,
Patrick Mahoney and another ace at the service line, this time off the serve of
David Beach. Dominican continued to chip away at the Duhawks' lead, keeping them within a two-point reach before the Duhawks went on a 4-1 scoring run to close out the set as the offense came alive with three of the four points in the run coming from kills off the hands of Martinez and
Dorian Fiorenza. The set closed out on a Dominican error by Mat Molloy to give Loras the first set victory at 25-21.
The Duhawks rode the momentum of the first set victory into the second set of the match, starting the set on a three-point scoring run with Fiorenza and
Tucker Ziegenhorn flooring one apiece. Dominican grabbed a pair of points back but the Duhawks again took off as the Stars' offensive woes gave the up five straight points, all on errors to bring the score to 9-2. The Stars made their way back to cut the deficit to just one point at 14-13 but the Duhawks continued to take advantage of their opposition's offensive struggles, scoring two more on errors to widen the lead at 16-13. The Loras offense catapulted the Duhawks to victory at the end of the set, outscoring the Stars 8-1 with seven of the eight points coming on kills by Martinez, Ziegenhorn, Mayotte, Fiorenza and Horn as the Duhawks took set number two by the largest margin of victory in the match for either team at 25-17.
Both sides traded blows early in the third set as the score found itself tied five times before Dominican pulled away by three in the middle of the set at 11-8. Loras continued to keep up with the No. 2-ranked team in the nation, going on a 5-1 scoring run to come back from a five point decifit, coming within one at 16-15. The two teams continued to battle as the Duhawks stayed a mere one point behind the Stars until Dominican closed out the set on a 5-3 run to stay alive and take the set 25-22.
The fourth set started as the third had, with both teams taking turns scoring before Loras gained a four-point lead at 10-6 after scoring five in a row on kills from Fiorenza and Horn while capitalizing on a trio of Dominican errors. Loras held the lead through the middle of the set until the Stars posted five points in a row to take the lead at 14-12, but the lead didn't last long as Ziegenhorn sparked a three-point run that saw Mahoney floor a kill, as well, to put Loras back ahead at 16-5. Dominican ended the set with a final score of 25-20 as their offense sparked with just a one-point lead, flooring a pair of kills and three straight service aces.
With the match score at an even 2-2, a fifth set was needed to decide a victor. With Dominican choosing to start the set with the serve, Daniel Sharrah hit the ball into the net before committing another error on the attack a play later to put the Duhawks ahead by two from the jump. The Stars scored three in a row to take a one-point lead at 3-2 before the Duhawks scored on a bad serve to tie the game once more. Dominican gained a three-point lead in the middle of the set and held off the Duhawks' attack to walk away with the 15-11 win to take the match 3-2.
The Duhawks outhit the Stars with a .172 hitting percentage in the match, flooring 54 kills to the Stars' 50, led by Fiorenza who had a season-high 21 kills while Martinez and Mahoney added nine apiece. At the service line, Beach tallied a pair of aces and Martinez and Horn had one each. Defensively, Mahoney locked down the net with eight total blocks in the match, joined by Fiorenza who had four and Horn who added three of his own. Horn assisted on 46 kills on the night while Beach aided defensively with 11 digs in the match.
Loras returns to the Lillis Athletic and Wellness Center on Saturday, Mar. 19 as they celebrate their seniors against the Augustana College Vikings in a College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin matchup. The match is scheduled to begin at 3:00 PM.
