Contact: Nathan Cameron, Assistant Director of Athletic Communications, 563-588-7243
 
NAPERVILLE, Ill. (Apr. 6, 2022) – The College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin (CCIW) Tournament was underway Wednesday night in Naperville, Ill. as the RV/No. 16 Loras College men's volleyball team (21-7, 9-3 CCIW) took on the No. 8/7 North Central College Cardinals (19-3, 9-3 CCIW). The Duhawks closed out the season tying their single-season wins record with 21 on the year while All-Conference First-Teamer Dorian Fiorenza cemented himself in the history books, breaking the single-season kills record with 264 to his name.
 
The Cardinals jumped ahead to a 2-0 lead in the first set but the Duhawks kept close, bringing the score to 3-2 on a kill from Patrick Mahoney and a North Central service error. North Central continued to push forward, taking advantage of the Loras offense's struggles in the set, going up by eight at 13-5 on three straight Duhawk attacking errors. Near the end of the set, the Duhawks outscored the Cardinals 3-1 on a pair of kills from Mahoney and Tyler Kratochvil with the run rounded out by a North Central error to bring the score to 20-10. A late-game push saw the Duhawks score two in a row on back-to-back errors from Jared Moser but the Cardinals took the first set with a final set score of 25-14.
 
The Duhawks took an early in set number two as Fiorenza floored a kill and an ace before Mahoney and Andres Martinez put down two kills to go up 4-2 early. Another kill by Martinez catapulted the Duhawks to a five-point run that saw the Cardinals struggle to get any offense going, committing four straight errors to bring the score to 9-4. In the middle of the set, the Cardinals came back within two, but kills by Fiorenza and CCIW Newcomer of the Year Corey Mayotte, followed by another Moser error saw the Duhawks gain a three-point edge at 14-11. North Central put pressure on the Duhawks late in the game, tying the score at 18 a side but Mayotte proved to be too much to hand as he put down a pair of kills while North Central's Ben Williams had a bad serve to put Loras back up by three once more at 21-18. In the closing moments with the score at a narrow 23-22 in favor of the Duhawks, Mahoney floored a kill that was followed by an Austin Scott error to give the Duhawks a set two win to tie the match score at one a side.
 
North Central got off to an early lead in the third set, going ahead by four at 9-5 before the Duhawks went on to outscore the Cardinals 5-1 on three North Central errors, a Fiorenza kill and a Joe Horn ace to tie the score at 10-10. The Cardinals responded by putting three straight points on the board but the Duhawks' offense came right back to floor three more kills to stay close at 14-13. Both sides battled through the end of the set but the Cardinals pulled away by five and took the third set with a final score of 25-20.
 
In the fourth set of the match, the Duhawks struck first on a North Central error before Mahoney and Kratochvil put down a pair of kills to go up by one at 3-2 early. The score tied at 4-4 shortly after, but the Duhawks gained a two-point edge after breaking the tie and outscoring the Cardinals 5-2 with Mahoney putting down two kills in the run while Horn added one. Through the middle of the set, the score tied five times before the Cardinals emerged with a three-point lead at 16-13. Mayotte responded by igniting a three-point scoring run that saw him floor back-to-back kills, followed by a Moser attacking error to tie the game back at 16-16. The game twice more before the Cardinals scored four in a row to take the lead at 22-18 but the Duhawks continued to fight, taking advantage of two North Central errors and a Mayotte kill to come back within one in the final moments of the match. The Cardinals again took a three-point lead at 24-21 but with the match on the line, North Central recorded two errors to bring the Duhawks back within one but they held on to advance in the tournament and take the fourth set with a score of 25-23.
 
Fiorenza led the Duhawks' attack with 11 kills in the match with Mayotte following with nine of his own while Mahoney put down seven. At the service line, Fiorenza and Horn floored an ace apiece while the Loras defense excelled in the match. At the net, the Duhawks recorded 13 total blocks in the match, led by Mahoney who had six, joined by Kratocvhile who had five and Mayotte with four. At setter, Horn assisted on 34 of the Duhawks 39 kills in the match while David Beach put up a team-high six digs in the match.