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Trine Men's Volleyball Falls to Mount St. Joseph, 3-1
Saturday, February 22, 2020

ANGOLA, IND. -- The Trine University men's volleyball team suffered a 3-1 loss against Mount St. Joseph (Ohio) University in a Midwest Collegiate Volleyball League match at Hershey Hall in Angola, Ind.

Trine (3-10, 0-3 MCVL) fell behind 3-0 early in the first set and trailed, 5-2, when the Thunder scored three straight points aided by kills by sophomore Dan Boren (Fort Wayne, Ind./Homestead) and senior Hunter Monday (Beech Grove, Ind./Lutheran) that evened the game at 5-5. The two teams battled to a tie on the scoreboard multiple times thereafter, including a 12-12 deadlock after a kill by MSJ. The tie was part of four unanswered points by the Lions and led to a 15-12 advantage. MSJ never trailed in the game again and gradually began to pull away on its way to leading by as many as five points that included a final score of 25-20.

In the second set, the Thunder led for a good portion early in the game and boasted a three-point advantage after a kill by freshman Chris Dargan (Manhattan, Ill./Lincoln Way West) that made the score, 11-8. MSJ then began to rally and took its first lead of the set by a 14-13 margin. The two teams then went back-and-forth with neither squad leading by more than a couple of points until the Lions rattled off four straight points with the score even at 19-19 to take the lead for good. Trine wouldn't get closer than three points down the stretch as MSJ went on to capture the set by a final of 25-22 and took a 2-0 match lead.

The third set saw Trine lead by three points, 12-9, after back-to-back attack errors by the Lions and a preceding kill by sophomore Kyle Dixon (Lockport, Ill./Lockport Twp.). The Thunder gained more breathing room after five straight points later in the set that included another kill by Dixon, and led to a six-point Trine advantage, 19-13. MSJ made things interesting late by pulling to within two points, 22-20, but Trine got the final three points it needed, capped by a kill by Dargan to end the game by a final of 25-21 and pulled the Trine to within a set, 2-1 for the overall match.

MSJ started the fourth set with four consecutive points and had a 5-1 margin early. Trine had to play catch-up the rest of the way and got to within two points on multiple occasions, but three unanswered scores by the Lions while already having a three-point advantage, put MSJ up by six points, 16-10. MSJ matched its six-point advantage late in the set and ended play by outscoring Trine, 3-1, to post its largest lead of the game of eight points with a final score of 25-17 and went on to claim the overall match by a final of 3-1.

Four Trine players recorded 10 or more kills in the match led by freshman Parker Beale (Noblesville, Ind./Fishers) with 12 kills and had a .267 attack percentage. The trio of Dargan, Dixon and Saenz all had 10 kills to round out the leaders. Dargan led the team in attack percentage at .333.

Monday had a team-high 43 set assists to go along with his one kill in the match.

Dixon had a team-best seven digs and was followed by sophomore Eric Santiago-Garcia (San Juan, Puerto Rico/Glen Ridge) with five digs. Up front, Dargan led the Trine blockers with four blocks (four assists). Monday and Boren were tied for second with three total blocks each.

Trine will look to get on track when it travels to Poughkeepsie, N.Y. for a non-conference matchup against Vassar College on Wednesday, Mar. 4. The match is set to begin at 7 p.m.



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