ROCK ISLAND, Ill. (March 22, 2023) – The (RV) Loras College men's volleyball team began its second half of the College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin (CCIW) season on Wednesday night by completing the season sweep of Augustana College with a 3-0 victory.

The Duhawks (15-3, 4-2 CCIW) have swept each of their last three matches with CCIW opponents and have now beaten the Vikings (10-8, 1-4 CCIW) in five consecutive matches to even the all-time series at five wins apiece.

Things got off to a hot start for the Duhawks as they totaled just one attacking error in a dominating first set that saw them win 25-13. A nearly inconceivable 10-0 run with sophomore Corey Mayotte on serve extended the Loras lead from 14-12 to 24-12 before Mayotte punctuated the set with his first kill of the match.

The Vikings kept things close in the second set as neither team tallied more than two consecutive points for the majority of the set. Toward the waning stages of the period, the Duhawk started to trade two-point runs for single Augustana points to pull away.  After holding a 13-10 lead, a 10-3 run that included two kills from senior hitter Dorian Fiorenza extended the Duhawk lead to 23-14 before Mayotte again finished off the set with a kill, this time for a 25-16 Duhawk win.

The third set was all about senior middle blocker Patrick Mahoney, who put on one of his best performances of the season with nine kills in the match and six in the third set alone. Mahoney added a block assist in the final set that helped the Duhawks hold off a late charge from the Vikings and take the set at 25-22.

Mahoney tallied his nine kills on just 10 attempts as he finished with a stellar .900 attacking percentage in the match. That helped the team tally an overall attacking percentage of .486 on Wednesday night, which marks a season-high for the Duhawks.

Mahoney also led all players with four block assists while Fiorenza finished with 12 kills to make him the only player in the match to reach double figures in that category.

Loras will be on the road on Saturday, March 25 to face No. 7 North Central College at 3 P.M. in Naperville, Ill. It will be the second meeting of the season after the then-No. 10 Cardinals beat the Duhawks 3-2 in Dubuque back on March 4.