BUFFALO, N.Y. – Playing in two local matches at two different schools in one day, the Hilbert College men's volleyball team had a busy schedule. Then, after considering who the Hawks had to play, it became obvious they had a challenging day.
Hilbert opened the afternoon at D'Youville College with an exciting and impressive performance in the 3-0 loss to No. 9 New York University. The Hawks boarded their vans and traveled four miles into North Buffalo and suffered a 3-0 defeat to No. 8 Carthage College (WI) at Medaille.
Brett Kane and
Korey Schwab each reached double digit kills for the six sets. Kane posted 14 (2.33 kps) and Schwab finished with 12 (2.00 kps).
Andrew Duncan completed the day with a team-best .286 attack percentage and he added five more blocks to his career total putting him one-block under #3 Anthony Blasz '13 who has 132. Duncan is chasing the career leader, Dan Wolfe '11 who graduated with 143 total blocks.
Ryan Brewster and
Andrew Wolbert tossed in 9 kills on the day while five different Hawks picked up five digs or more.
Korey Schwab,
Brett Kane and
Adam Heftka led the way with six digs each.
Adam Heftka notched 41 assists on the Hawks 54 kills for the day. Heftka and Kane were active at the net block assisting with Duncan all day.
Against NYU, Hilbert was credited with 41 kills, which is the third highest figure of the season but their most productive results in a three-set match which just happened to be against a top 10 team.
Hilbert was in a ten-point deficit early in the opening match, but the Hawks went on a six-point run to cut the difference to five (18-13). NYU added one point, Hilbert tossed on the score board three; gave away one and took two more in a row. The set became a two-point game (20-18) before the out-of-towners reached for three straight markers.
Down 23-18, Hilbert called a timeout, and took four straight points to force NYU to take a timeout as they only held a one-point lead (23-22). The Violets came back and reached 24-22 off a kill but
Korey Schwab followed with another kill to keep it within reach (24-23). NYU took the first set on a kill.
Hilbert found themselves down by as many as seven points (19-12) but three straight Schwab kills brought the Hawks back into the game (20-16). Each team strung together two-points in a row, but with the four-point lead, the Violets made it to 25 first (25-21).
Playing with confidence, the Hawks gave NYU a run for their money. Hilbert played point for point with the Violets and held an 11-9 lead off back-to-back
Ryan Brewster kills. The Hawks gave NYU four of their next five points to fall behind 14-11. Hilbert rallied and forced a 22-23 and 23-23 score before the Violets escaped with a 25-23 win.
Hilbert earned more kills than NYU (41-37) but had three more hitting errors and more service errors (13-6) in the loss.
No. 8 Carthage did not give Hilbert a fighting chance in the night cap game. The Red Men held Hilbert to season-lows 13 kills and 60 attempts. The Hawks fell 25-12, 25-7, 25-14 to the 15-6 and undefeated MCVL (11-0) leaders.
Carthage finished the match with a .500 attack percentage hitting .585 in the first set then turned-it-up to .615 in the second set.
Kane, Schwab and Brewster were the three big hitters finishing with three kills each.
Adam Heftka was credited with only 11 assists and Hilbert picked up 10 digs in the final match of the day.
Hilbert (1-23, 1-10 NEAC) returns to league action next weekend when they stay in town and travel to Medaille College for their final NEAC cross-over weekend. The Hawks face Lancaster Bible (1-22, 0-11) at 12 noon and Keuka (13-8, 6-5) at 8 pm March 28. They following morning they challenge Altoona (5-14, 4-7) at 11 am.
