The Dominican University men's volleyball team improved to 13-9 overall and 8-3 in the Northern Athletics Conference (NACC) with a four-set (25-23, 22-25, 25-21, 25-18) win over the Marian University Sabres on Wednesday night at the Igini Sports Forum.  With the win, the Stars, ranked 15^th in this week's AVCA Division III Men's Coaches Poll, moves into sole possession of third place in the NACC standings, one-half game behind the MSOE Raiders for second, with five games remaining on the Stars' NACC slate.
 
"Not a comfortable night for our team," said Dan Pawlikowski, the Stars' second-year head men's volleyball coach, "and a lot of credit for that needs to go to Marian. They put a lot of pressure on us with their attack and they got a stellar performance by their libero, Cullen Liberski. He dug some absolute missiles from our guys."
 
"I was very pleased to see us fight back as a group and rise up to the pressure together rather than playing as individuals," continued Pawlikowski. "This was another big step in the right direction for our team overall."
 
The Sabres ended up edging the Stars in attack percentage, .328 to .320, but Dominican managed 60 kills to Marian's 50.  The biggest difference in stats that swung the match in the Stars' favor were Dominican's seven blocks to Marian's three and the serving line where the Stars collected seven aces to 12 errors while Marian committed 16 errors at the service line while managing just four aces.
 
Jake Sidner carried the hot hand for the Stars, knocking down 19 kills on 42 swings while committing just three errors.  The junior right side set the tone in the opening set, knocking down six kills before helping Dominican secure the win with five kills in each the third and fourth sets.
 
Adam Eboli added 12 kills on just 18 attack attempts while Ethan Klosak finished the night with ten kills, rounding out three Stars in double-digit kills.  Sophomore setter Jack McGuire ran the offense, doling out 51 assists while utilizing nine different attackers.
 
Defensively, Klosak rounded out a double-double with 15 digs while Bregin DeMarco added ten.  At the net, Eboli collected four block assists while McGuire and Patrick Bradford tallied three apiece.
 
For the Sabres, four players reached double-digit kills on an attack ran by Joey Dittman's 45 assists.  Jacob Jurney finished with a team-high 14 kills while Jon Smallpage added 12.  Jacob DeGroot and Ben Walter finished with ten kills apiece.  Liberski finished with a match-high 18 digs.
 
Dominican is on the road on Saturday, traveling into Chicago to face the Illinois Tech Scarlet Hawks before the NACC-leading and fifth-ranked Benedictine University Eagles visit the Igini Sports Forum next Wednesday night.