ANGOLA, Ind. – The Indiana Tech men's volleyball team earned a split today in nonconference action as they defeated Trine University 3-0 (25-16, 25-15, 25-22) and fell to Hiram College 3-2 (21-25, 25-20, 23-25, 25-21, 12-15) Saturday morning inside Hershey Hall.
Cameron Ternent had 10 kills, three service aces and four digs against Trine while
Mason Milan had eight kills, two blocks and three digs while hitting at a .500 clip.
Daynte Stewart had seven kills, two aces and three digs while
Chandler Davis dished out 22 assists and eight digs.
Tech got out to a 7-2 lead in the first set, but Trine rushed back with a 6-1 spurt to knot the set up at 8-8. The Warriors never surrendered the lead though and used a 5-1 run to go up 15-10 and force the hosts to call a timeout. Another 5-1 run pushed the advantage to 21-13 while a Thunder service error gave the Orange and Black the early 1-0 lead.
After being knotted up at 4-4 in the second set, Tech went on a 6-0 run and never looked back as they grew their lead to as many as eight points. The Thunder put a small scare in the Warriors with a 3-0 run to cut the deficit to 18-13, but the Orange and Black responded with a 7-2 run to close out the set and take a 2-0 lead.
The third set was a back-and-forth battle that saw the two sides tied up at 19-all. A 3-0 run from Tech promoted a timeout from Tine with the Warriors leading 22-19 before two more points from the visitors made it a 24-20 game. The Thunder fought off two match points coming out of a timeout, but Milan finished off the sweep with a kill to give Tech the season sweep of Trine.
Ternent had 16 more kills against Hiram and added 11 digs while Stewart had 13 kills and five digs.
Chase Christiansen tacked on 11 kills and a .478 hitting percentage while Milan racked up 11 kills and 12 digs. Davis dished out a career-best 54 assists while
Joey Hermes had 13 digs.
After four closely contest sets that featured 22 ties and six lead changes, it would all come down to a winner-take-all fifth set. Hiram took the early lead with the first two points while Tech took the next two on kills from Stewart and Ternent. The Terriers won five of the next seven points to force the Warriors to call a timeout trailing 7-4. Hiram went into the changeover leading 8-6 and pushed their advantage up to 14-11. A double block from Christiansen and Davis staved off one match point for Tech, but it would not be enough as Hiram won the next point to take the match 3-2.
Tech (5-11) returns to conference action on Wednesday as they host Lawrence Technological University. First serve is set for 7:30 p.m. from the Schaefer Center.
