The Dominican University men's volleyball team, ranked third in this week's American Volleyball Coaches Association (AVCA) Division III Men's Coaches Poll, dropped their first Northern Athletics Collegiate Conference (NACC) match of the season on Thursday evening, falling to the fourth-ranked Benedictine University Eagles in three sets (25-23, 28-26, 25-18).  With the loss, the Stars see their nine match winning streak come to a close, falling to 9-2 on the season and 4-1 in conference play.
 
"We picked a really bad time to come out of the gates flat," said Dan Pawlikowski, the Stars' second-year head coach, following the setback.  "Congrats to Benedictine—they were able to capitalize on opportunities and take the first two very close sets and push to finish the sweep."
 
"We win as a team and tonight we lost as a team," continued Pawlikowski. "We learned some tough lessons tonight, but at a steep price. We must move on and quickly regroup for our Saturday match."
 
The Stars outhit the Eagles .210 to .195 and collected two more blocks but could not overcome 21 errors at the serving line.
 
Jake Sidner paced the Dominican attack with ten kills on 21 attacks while George Kougan and Ethan Klosak added nine and eight kills respectively.  Jack McGuire ran the offense, doling out 34 assists while spreading the ball around to six different attackers.
 
Defensively, the Stars collected eight total blocks with Adam Eboli getting in on six.  The senior middle logged one solo block and five block assists in the three-set loss.
 
For the Eagles, Joe Lock ran the offense, collecting 27 assists with Elijah Medlock knocking down a team-high nine kills on 23 attempts as Benedictine improved to 11-1 on the season and remained perfect in league play at 4-0.
 
Dominican will look to get back in the win column on Saturday, traveling to Aurora University for another NACC matchup with the Aurora Spartans.  The match is scheduled for a 1:00 p.m. start at Thornton Gymnasium.