The Dominican University men's volleyball team improved to 8-1 in the Northern Athletics Collegiate Conference (NACC) and 20-6 overall with a four-set win (21-25, 25-18, 25-22, 25-19) over the MSOE Raiders on Friday night at the Igini Sports Forum. The win sets up a showdown between the top two teams in the Northern Athletics Collegiate Conference (NACC), the Stars and Benedictine University Eagles, heading into the final week of conference play.
"I thought MSOE did a very good job of taking the fight to us," said Dan Pawlikowski, the Stars' head coach, following the match. "They pushed us early and often. It was really great to see us rebound from the first set and then grind through the rest of the match. No style points awarded but another big win earned for the Stars."
After the Raiders hit at a .448 to take the first set, the Stars limited MSOE to just an .089 attack percentage the rest of the night, forcing 19 errors while surrendering just 26 kills.
Jack McGuire ran the Stars' offense to a .214 attack percentage, doling out 39 assists on Dominican's 44 kills. Sophomore
Ethan Klosak finished the night with a team-high 12 kills, including five in the clinching fourth set and four in the third set.
Jake Sidner added nine kills and
Luke Spicer finished with eight while Dominican's middles
Adam Eboli and
Nick Timreck knocked down seven kills apiece.
At the net, Dominican's block posted eight total blocks, including a block by McGuire and Eboli for match point. Eboli finished with a team-high six total blocks, including one solo block, while McGuire collected three block assists. In the back row, Dominican tallied 36 digs, paced by McGuire's nine digs and Klosak's eight.
For the Raiders, Jake Christensen finished with a team-high 12 kills, leading two in double-figure kills. Teammate Logan Baerenwald added 11 kills while Jacob Bentz dished out 37 assists.
The Stars close out the 2018 regular season next week with a trio of NACC contests. Dominican hosts the #5 Benedictine University Eagles on Wednesday before hitting the road for Marian University on Friday and Lakeland University on Saturday.
