The Dominican University men's volleyball team scored a pair of victories on Saturday afternoon in River Forest, Illinois, edging the Lakeland College Muskies if five sets (22-25, 25-19, 13-25, 25-15, 15-12) in Midwest Collegiate Volleyball League (MCVL) action before knocking off the #11 MIT Engineers in four sets (25-21, 13-25, 25-17, 25-18) in a non-conference tilt.
 
Dominican trailed twice in the win over Lakeland, rallying from a 1-0 and 2-1 deficit behind 13 kills apiece from freshman Luke Spicer (St. Charles, Ill.) and sophomore Jeremy Royko (Naperville, Ill.).
 
The Stars hit .295 for the match behind Alex Coyne (Naperville, Ill.) who doled out 53 assists.  Edvinas Karalius (Oak Lawn, Ill.) entered the match in the fourth set, picking up six kills over the final two sets to help the Stars to the win while Nick Timreck (Downers Grove, Ill.) knocked down ten kills over the five sets.
 
The Muskies forced the Dominican offense to earn the victory, collecting 39 digs and tallying 14 total blocks led by Tim Robbins who totaled two solo blocks and six block assists.
 
The Dominican defense effort was led by David DeMarco (Downers Grove, Ill.) who collected 11 digs while Timwreck led the way in blocks with six block assists.
 
In the nightcap victory over the Engineers, the Stars' offense clicked in the third set, committing just six errors over the final two sets after 11 errors in the first set and eight in the second.  Coyne ran a balanced offensive attack, collecting 53 assists with three hitters reaching double-digit kills led by Spicer with 15.  Zachery Sinn (Winfield, Ill.) knocked down 11 kills in just two sets while Aidan Spangler (Western Springs, Ill.) and Royko collected ten and nine kills respectively.
 
Defensively, DeMarco and Brooks Nevrly (Downers Grove, Ill.) led the effort with ten digs apiece while Timwreck was in on five of the Stars' seven total blocks.
 
For the Stars, the win over the Engineers was Dominican third over an AVCA Top 15 opponent with Dominican moving to 7-5 on the year and 3-3 against the AVCA Top 15.  The Stars, now 6-1 in the MCVL, return to conference action on Wednesday, hosting the #7 Carthage College Redmen for a 7:00 p.m. match in the Igini Sports Forum.