Feb. 11, 2023 – Loras College's men's volleyball team had to battle it out through the end of its Saturday mid-day match as the Duhawks earned their first four-set win of the season in a 3-1 victory over Concordia University Wisconsin.

The Duhawks (6-1) had earned each of their first five wins of the season in dominating fashion, but got more of a test than they had been used to on Saturday from the Falcons (3-4).

Saturday marked the first game for Loras in two weeks after a weather postponement on Thursday altered the schedule. Even with extra rest, the Duhawks showed no signs of rust as they darted out to an easy 25-18 victory in set one.

The Falcons trailed 3-0 early in the second set, but clawed their way back into things and hung around as they waited for the Duhawks to make a mistake. Loras totaled six attacking errors in the second set, their most in a set on Saturday, to allow the Falcons to force the match past 25 points.

Sophomore Corey Mayotte capped the set with a pair of kills to put an end to the CUW charge, giving Loras a 2-0 advantage after two.

Despite coming up short in set two, the Falcons seemed to have stolen a little momentum away from the Duhawks and jumped out to an early 6-4 lead. Later in the set, three straight points for CUW made the score 23-21 in favor of the Falcons, and they eventually claimed the set in extra points to force a fourth set.

A flurry of service errors for both sides got the fourth set off to a rocky start, but the Duhawks finally managed to give the game a more natural pace as they tallied three straight points during the middle section of the set to make it 14-11 in their favor.

That little bit of separation was all they needed as they went on to claim nine of the final 11 points in the set to finish off the match with a 25-16 win. Senior Dorian Fiorenza contributed three kills to the late run that helped the Duhawks pull away.

Mayotte led all players with 16 kills in the match while Fiorenza also finished in double figures with 10. Loras also got big contributions from junior Michael Dziewior, who finished with 8 kills, and senior Patrick Mahoney, who made his presence felt at the net as he totaled seven kills and seven solo blocks (nine total).

The Duhawks are at home again next Friday, Feb. 17, when they host Edgewood College at 7 P.M.