PITTSFORD, N.Y. – Hilbert opened day two of the Golden Flyer Invitational with a three-set loss against the #9 ranked Soaring Eagles of Elmira College and then closed the four-game tourney with a 3-0 loss to Medaille College (4-2).
Elmira (7-2) collected 34 kills and seven blocks while Hilbert finished with 25 kills and only two blocks. The Soaring Eagles were hot at the net in the final set, hitting at a .400 clip (.294 overall) while the Hawks were consistent each set and closed with a .157 attack percentage.
Elmira started fast, winning the first set 25-13, before they fought to a pair of 25-22 and 25-18 sets.
Michael Podgorny gathered seven kills and five digs, both team highs.
Korey Schwab and
Brett Kane chipped in six kills each while Schwab picked up three more service aces.
Ryan Schwab shared four digs with his brother Korey, while
Tanner Makowski,
Tyler Sieczkarek and Trevor Gabamore bumped three digs too.
In the mid-afternoon match, Hilbert was a great match-up against the Mavericks from Medaille. Each team collected 26 digs and were close in kills (Med 39 v Hil 31).
But it was the service line and hitting percentage that created the separation in the match. Hilbert was credited with three aces as opposed to Medaille's 13 quick-strikes while the Mav's struck for .405 attack-rate compared to Hilbert's .177.
Medaille won the first set 25-14 by pulling away late in the game.
After playing through eight ties in the second set, Medaille built their largest lead (17-13) and looked as if they were going to pull away again.
Tanner Makowski,
Michael Podgorny,
Korey Schwab and
Tyler Sieczkarek each tacked on kills in addition to Makowski's service ace to force a 19-19 tie. Twice the Mav's extended their lead to two points only to watch the Hawks close the gap again to 22-22. Medaille captured the final point on a kill for the 25-23 victory.
Medaille strung together a few service aces in the middle of the third set and padded their score with three more points late in the match to claim the victory, 25-15.
Left-handed
Brett Kane was successful on the front line finishing with 10 kills but it was
Tyler Sieczkarek who didn't miss a beat, collecting seven kills with zero errors in 12 attacks (.583).
Adam Heftka picked up 29 more assists and four digs this afternoon.
Kane (two service aces) and
Michael Podgorny reached for six digs each.
At the conclusion of the two-day invitational, Nazareth College announced a 9-man All Tournament team. Hilbert freshman
Michael Podgorny joined Mike Ellison (Elmira), Jake Kemp (Nazareth), Grant Levermore (Naz), Matt Loos (D'Youville), Pete McKelvey (Medaille), Cameron Ponce (Johnson & Wales), Brad Schneider (Medaille) and Tim Zyburt, MVP (Naz).
Hilbert enters the NEAC portion of their regular schedule next weekend when they travel to North Buffalo for cross-over matches hosted by Medaille College. On Feb 13, Hilbert will face Wells College at 12 pm and Keuka College at 4pm. The following morning, the Hawks square off against SUNY Ploy at 10 am.
Currently Hilbert is 1-0 in NEAC standings after their victory against D'Youville last week.
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