The Dominican University men's volleyball won the first two sets in a battle of American Volleyball Coaches Association (AVCA) Men's Division III Top 15 teams on Sunday afternoon at the Igini Sports Forum before falling in five sets (17-25, 22-25, 25-22, 25-16, 15-11) to the third-ranked UC-Santa Cruz Banana Slugs. The loss drops the Stars to 3-1 on the season with their first road trip of the season on deck, traveling to Ohio to play Mount St. Joseph and Elmira College on Friday and Wittenberg and Penn State-Altoona on Saturday.
The Stars hit a blistering .458 in the opening set, overpowering the visiting Banana Slugs who managed to convert at just a .097 rate thanks in large part to four Dominican blocks. The Stars'
Jake Sidner tallied five kills on seven swings while
Ethan Klosak managed to knock down four kills with just one error on seven attempts.
In the second set, junior
Adam Eboli heated up, collecting six kills on seven attempts as the Stars out-slugged the Banana Slugs, .333 to .300. Neither team was able to string together too many runs with Dominican going 69-percent on sideouts to UC-Santa Cruz's 62-percent.
In the third set, Lake Merchen picked up the pace, knocking down ten kills on 13 swings as the Banana Slugs out-hit the Stars for the first time in the match, .344 to .333. Behind Merchen and a big block in the fourth, the Banana Slugs evened the match, forcing a fifth set.
In the fifth set, UC-Santa Cruz tallied four of the first five points and then kept the Stars from climbing back, going 10-for-12 on sideouts.
Klosak knocked down a career-high 18 kills in the loss while Eboli added 14 kills and Sidner and
Nick Timreck finished with 11 apiece. Sophomore setter
Evan Ruffner ran the offense to a .279 attack percentage, dishing out a career-high 52 assists.
Defensively,
David DeMarco collected a team-high 14 digs while Timreck posted four total blocks and Sidner collected three.
For the Banana Slugs, Merchen finished with a match-high 30 kills on 50 swings to lead the comeback.
The teams collected 61 kills apiece with UC-Santa Cruz posting a .283 attack percentage and Dominican finishing with a .279 hitting percentage. The Banana Slugs served four aces to the Stars' two while the battle at the net heavily favored UC-Santa Cruz who posted 17 blocks in the win.
