The Dominican University men's volleyball team advanced to the Northern Athletics Collegiate Conference (NACC) Tournament Championship match with a three-set (25-21, 25-20, 25-21) sweep of the Marian University Sabres in the semifinals at the Igini Sports Forum on Thursday night. The Stars, the top seed in the tournament, will now host the second-seeded Benedictine University Eagles on Saturday night with the winner claiming the conference's automatic bid to the NCAA Division III Men's Volleyball Championship.
"That was a very exciting win tonight," said Dominican's Dan Pawlikowski following his first post-season victory as the Stars' head coach. "We knew after last week exactly what Marian was capable of and they once again answered the bell. I thought we showed great resolve all match, especially after Marian would make a run. I'm looking forward to another great crowd on Saturday for the NACC Championship."
The Stars piled up 41 kills with just nine errors on 81 total attacks for a .395 hitting percentage in the winning effort. Senior
Luke Spicer, named the NACC
Player of the Year on Wednesday, logged a team-high ten kills in a very balanced Dominican attack that saw six different players tally at least four kills.
Ethan Klosak and
Jake Sidner knocked down nine kills.
Nick Timreck added five kills while
Jack McGuire and
Adam Eboli terminated four rallies each. McGuire ran the offense, collecting assists on 35 of the Stars' 41 kills.
Dominican came out with fire in the first set, using a five-point run that was sparked by a Spicer kill to open an 8-2 lead and force Marian to use their first timeout. The Dominican lead grew all the way to 14-7 before a 5-1 run for Marian pulled the Sabres within 15-12, forcing Dominican to burn a timeout. Out of the timeout Dominican committed an attack error before a kill by Klosak stopped the run. Klosak then stepped back to serve five straight, capped by an ace as the Stars' lead grew back to 20-13 en route to the 25-21 set one win.
Marian scored four of the first five points in the second set before Dominican's defense set the tone in the set. The Stars posted five blocks in the second frame, limiting the Sabres to a -.032 attack percentage. Eboli tallied a solo block and two block assists in the set while Timreck logged one solo and one assist. With the defense setting the tone, Dominican overcame the early deficit, eventually opening an 18-14 lead when Eboli and McGuire stuffed Marian's Jacob DeGroot at the net. The Stars kept the Sabres at bay the remainder of the set, finishing off the set when Klosak knocked down set point.
Set three went back-and-forth all the way up to 11-11 until Klosak started a four-point Dominican spurt with a kill. The run gave the Stars the lead for good as Dominican closed out the win, hitting .500 in the clinching set.
For the Sabres, Jon Smallpage led the way with a match-high 12 kills on 28 swings.
Defensively for Dominican, Eboli finished with six total blocks, five assisted and one solo while McGuire and Timreck tallied three total blocks each. In the back row,
David DeMarco collected a team-high seven digs.
The NACC Championship pits the NACC's two heavyweights in the Stars, ranked eighth in this week's AVCA Division III Men's Top 15 Poll, and the Eagles, ranked ninth. The teams split their regular season conference matches with each team holding serve on their home court. The rubber match will determine which program will represent the NACC at the NCAA national tournament in the first season the league has sponsored men's volleyball.
