HAMBURG, N.Y. – The Hilbert College men's volleyball program celebrated their three seniors tonight before they hosted Penn State Behrend in their final game of the 2016 season.
The Lions came into the Hafner Recreation Center and claimed a 3-1 match victory to improve to 8-18 while the Hawks closed their season at 11-17 overall.
Korey Schwab finished with 15 kills and two block assists to climb over the 1,000 point plateau in his four year career.
Tyler Sieczkarek added eight kills and a service ace, a pair of digs and block assists while his fellow senior
James Moscato tossed down six kills along with matching service aces and blocks.
Behrend was led by two powerful hitters as 6'7" Trenton Munk went for 20 kills (2 errors) and Josh Oertly tossed down 15 kills (2 errors).
Both teams setters were very involved with Hilbert's
Adam Heftka credited with 44 assists and Behrend's Anthony Sprentz tracking 55 assists.
The Hawks got hitting power tonight from other front line players. Both
Tanner Makowski and
Michael Podgorny earned nine kills with both hitting just two miscues all night.
Trevor Gabamonte collected 13 digs and probably had his hands on many other hard hit volleyballs that turned into Lion kills.
Behrend opened the match with strong hitting as they grabbed the first set 25-21 behind 19 kills (4 errors). The Hawks found their rhythm in the second set, out-hitting the visitors (.241 to .094) en route to a 25-19 victory. Through the first two sets, Schwab was credited with 7.5 points off of seven kills and one block assist.
It was his first kill and the team's first point in the third set which lifted Schwab to 1,000 points. The stoppage of play and announcement of his achievement gave the Hawks a momentum shift and they rushed ahead of Behrend by four points. But the long-arm Lion forced back-to-back Hilbert hitting errors/block assists and Behrend rallied back for a 18-16 lead.
The Hawks had their own block assist as the ball floated to the back row staying in bounds to cut the score back to 19-19 and Moscato's kill gave Hilbert their last lead, 20-19. Behrend closed the match with five kills to claim a 2-1 lead.
As they had earlier, Behrend's front line forced play to continue or claimed a few points off block assists. Sieczkarek garnered five of Hilbert's 15 kills but the Hawks did not cause concern defensively at the net allowing the Lions to finish 12 kills with zero hitting errors as they took the final set 25-17.
Though the 2016 season has come to a close, this team should be proud of their accomplishment to setting a new single-season win record at 11-17.
