LEBANON, Tenn. – The Indiana Tech men's volleyball team dropped a pair of matches Friday afternoon at the Cumberland Men's Volleyball Phoenix Classic, falling 3-1 (15-25, 25-23, 21-25, 14-25) to Missouri Valley College and 3-2 (2-3 21-25, 28-30, 25-19, 25-20, 14-16) to Cumberland University at Dallas Floyd Phoenix Arena.
 
Daynte Stewart led Tech with 10 kills in the match against Missouri Valley while Dante Siracusa and Chase Christiansen each had seven kills apiece. Siracusa hit .429 with five blocks while Joey Hermes had 10 digs. Chandler Davis dished out 32 assists.
 
The Vikings got out to a 5-3 lead to begin the match before extending it to 10-5. The Warriors never threatened in the opening set as Missouri Valley grew their lead to 21-11 before winning 25-15. The second set would start a back-and-forth affair with the Warriors leading 10-8 early on. MVC came back and appeared with poised to take a 2-0 lead with a 20-19 advantage, but Tech closed the game on a 6-3 run to even the match up at 1-1.
 
The Orange and Black raced out to an 8-4 lead that was capped by a 3-0 run. The Vikings would not bow down lightly though and came back to lead 17-16. MVC pulled away late with a 5-3 run to take the third set and go up 2-1. The Vikings would pull away from the Warriors in the fourth set early, leading 20-9 following a 6-0 spurt and took the match with a 25-14 win.
 
The second match of the day was a classic that featured 36 ties and 19 lead changes, with Stewart recording 16 kills, five blocks and five digs with a .265 hitting percentage. Mason Milan and Cameron Ternent each had 12 kills with the former recording five blocks. Davis dished out 46 assists while Hermes had 16 digs.
 
After falling behind 2-0 in the match, Tech came back with a .310 and .450 hitting percentage while limiting the Phoenix to just a .176 and .091 attack percentage. A 4-0 run put the Warriors up 9-7 in the third and never trailed the rest of the set to make it a 2-1 match. Cumberland appeared poised to take the match in the fourth set with a 17-15 lead, but the Orange and Black came right back with a 10-3 run to win the set and tie the match at 2-2.
 
With 10 ties and six lead changes in the fifth and final set, the two teams battled it out for who would come out of the final match of the day a winner. Tech got out to a 6-4 lead, but the Phoenix came back to take a 10-8 lead. The Warriors battled back to tie the game at 14-14, but CU took the next two points to come away with the 3-2 win.
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Tech (1-3) returns to action on Saturday with the final two matches of the Phoenix Classic against Reinhardt University and Judson University at 10 a.m. and 6 p.m. ET from Dallas Floyd Phoenix Arena.