The Dominican University men's volleyball team ran its season-opening win streak to three matches with a three-set (25-20, 25-21, 25-20) win over the Fontbonne University Griffins on Friday night at the Igini Sports Forum. The Stars hit at a .366 clip for the night, including an even .500 attack percentage in the second set to improve to 3-0 on the year.
"Proud of our guys tonight," said
Cameron Andrew, the Stars' head men's volleyball coach, following the win. "They put together a really elite game both blocking and offensively. We continued to force our guys to push themselves in practice defensively and I think some of that work came out tonight. We had some of the best scramble plays we've had so far this year and they communicated well on those hectic plays. With that said, we obviously need to improve at the service line. Twenty-one errors is far too many and we allowed those games to stay close with our missed serves. It's becoming a trend now, but now that we know it's a weakness, we can place more of an emphasis on that in the practice gym."
Jack McGuire ran a balanced attack for the Stars, doling out 32 assists on Dominican's 39 kills. Four different hitters took double-digit swings with
Ethan Klosak,
Troy Kates and
George Kougan all tallying eight kills apiece. Kates did his damage on just 12 swings, committing just one error and hitting .583 for the night. For Klosak and Kougan, each took 21 swings and hit .238 in the winning effort.
Jake Sidner added six kills while
Mat Molloy was a perfect 5-for-5, terminating five rallies on all five of his swings.
Defensively, the Stars limited the Griffins to a .111 attack percentage, allowing just 28 kills while collecting 33 digs and posting ten total blocks at the net. Kates and Kougan managed five block assists apiece while McGuire had three block assists and one solo block for a total of four blocks. In the back row, libero
Bregin DeMarco collected a team-high 11 digs while McGuire rounded out a double-double with ten digs of his own.
The Stars will look to keep to their winning ways on Saturday, hosting the Olivet College Comets for a 2:00 p.m. first serve in River Forest. Dominican then faces its stiffest test to date on Wednesday, February 12, when the Carthage College Red Men visit the Igini Sports Forum.
