The Dominican University men's volleyball team topped the Benedictine University Eagles in four sets (25-17, 12-25, 25-18, 25-18) on Friday evening, improving to 16-7 on the season and moving up to fifth place in the Midwest Collegiate Volleyball League (MCVL) standings at 8-3 with two matches to play in the 2016 regular season for the Stars.
 
"Tonight was a great win for our guys," said Doug Burchett, Dominican University assistant coach. "We really dug deep in some of the rallies to control the momentum and I thought besides the second set, we really executed our game plan with winning the serve and pass game."
 
The Stars posted a .972 serve receive percentage, committing just two receiving errors on 70 Benedictine serves while serving up six aces, including five for middle Mason Solbrig (Lindenhurst, Ill.), when Dominican held serve.
 
With the scored knotted at 15-15 in the first set, Dominican used a 10-2 run to close out the set.  On the run, Solbrig knocked down a kill for a Dominican sideout and the 6'6 junior then stepped back to serve seven points, including a trio of aces to put the first set away.
 
Roles reversed in the second set with the Eagles going 11-for-13 on sideouts while Dominican went just 10-for-24, including allowing the Eagles to close the set on an 11-2 run.  The Stars committed nine of its 21 attack errors for the match in the second frame with Benedictine posting five of its eight total blocks in the set.
 
In the third set, the Stars' offense posted a .500 attack percentage, knocking down 15 kills in the set while committing just three hitting errors on 24 total attacks.  Dominican also went 16-for-19 on sideouts, never allowing the Eagles to get on a long run.  Jeremy Royko (Naperville, Ill.) knocked down four of his 12 kills in the set while Solbrig, Trevor Slonek (West Chicago, Ill.) and Robert Mead (Darien, Ill.) added three kills apiece in the third.
 
The Stars then rode Luke Spicer (St. Charles, Ill.) and Solbrig in the fourth set.  The pair combined for ten kills on 19 swings.
 
Offensively, Alex Coyne (Naperville, Ill.) topped ten assists per set, doling out 41 assists in leading the Stars to a .246 attack percentage behind a very balanced attack.  Royko and Solbrig shared team-high honors with 12 kills apiece while Spicer added ten kills and Slonik killed nine rallies.
 
"Mason and Trevor did a really great job offensively at the middle," commented Burchett. "It really showed how dangerous of a team we can be when we are firing on all cylinders."
 
Defensively, Dominican picked up seven total blocks, including five for Slonik, and dug up 35 Benedictine attacks.  Royko and Spicer collected eight and seven digs respectively to lead the effort while junior libero Brooks Nevrly (Downers Grove, Ill.) added six digs.
 
For the Eagles, Sterling Glover led the effort with a match-high 20 kills on 37 swings while libero Ian Thompson, the conference leader in digs per set, collected a match-high 15 digs in the losing effort.
 
Dominican will enjoy a near two-week break between contests before returning to action on Friday, April 1 when the Stars travel to Sheboygan, Wisconsin, to meet the Lakeland College Muskies.