The 14^th-ranked Dominican University men's volleyball team avenged a three-set loss earlier in the season, topping the fifth-ranked Benedictine University Eagles in five sets (25-17, 21-25, 20-25, 25-15, 15-9) on Wednesday night at the Igini Sports Forum.  With the win, the Stars improve to 15-9 on the season and 10-3 in the Northern Athletics Collegiate Conference (NACC).  The win is the Stars' third over an AVCA Top 15 opponent this season and first over a team in the top five.
 
"A stellar match tonight from both teams," said Dan Pawlikowski, the Stars' head men's volleyball coach. "It was a point-for-point battle at times and at other times both teams tried to wrestle away and assert themselves.  I'm happy for our guys to be on the winning side of this match, but even happier to see us fight back as a collective group. We had no quit in us tonight. There was a relentless mindset that was crucial for us…and to play like that in front of a rowdy home crowd was just what we needed to do for us to take another step forward as a team."
 
The Stars collected a season-high 70 kills on the winning effort, getting a match-high 20 kills from Ethan Klosak while Jake Sidner and Adam Eboli added 13 and 11 kills respectively.  Behind Jack McGuire's 53 assists, the Stars hit .315 as a team, including a .478 attack percentage in the clinching fifth set.  Dominican's efficient attack helped the Stars to post a .670 sideout percentage, including going 19-for-25 on sideouts over the final two sets.
 
In the battle of the top-15 teams, Dominican asserted itself in set one, hitting .464 while limiting the Eagles to just ten kills and a .160 attack percentage.  Klosak and Sidner packed a one-two punch for the offense, collecting five kills apiece in the set.
 
The tides turned in the second set with Benedictine's offense catching fire, hitting .393 with 15 kills to just four errors on 28 attack attempts.  The Eagles continued to out-hit the Stars in the third set, posting a .281 hitting percentage while Dominican managed to convert at just a .161 clip.
 
Dominican began to change the momentum in the fourth set, using a couple of early 4-0 runs to pull in front and then kept the Eagles at bay by going 12-for-16 on sideout attempts.  Klosak knocked down another five kills in the frame to help the Stars even the match.
 
In the fifth set, after the Eagles scored the first two points, Dominican responded with four straight, including back-to-back aces from Klosak to open a 4-2 lead and never trailed again.  Klosak and Eboli helped put the upset to bed, combining for seven kills on just nine attacks without committing an error.
 
Defensively, the Stars collected 48 digs and posted seven blocks as a team in the winning effort.  Bregin DeMarco led the back row effort with a match-high 15 digs while McGuire and Klosak rounded out double-doubles with 11 digs apiece.  At the net, Patrick Bradford and George Kougan posted four total blocks apiece.
 
Dominican returns to action on Friday night, closing out the home portion of their 2019 slate with a pair of matches.  The Stars will host the Concordia Chicago Cougars in a NACC match at 5:00 p.m. before taking on the MIT Engineers at 7:00 p.m.