BUFFALO, N.Y. – The Hilbert College men's volleyball team traveled to D'Youville College for the team's first tri-match of the season.  The Hawks dropped two North Eastern Athletic Conference matches to two cross-town rivals, Medaille College and D'Youville College.

Junior outside hitter Korey Schwab led the attack with 25 kills and senior middle Andrew Duncan tossed down 21 kills as those two combined for 60% of Hilbert's offensive attack at the net.  Sophomore Adam Heftka assisted on 62 of Hilbert's 76 kills (7.75 aps) and the Hawks got a balanced defensive effort behind four different players who chipped in at least 14 digs in seven sets.

After the start of the seventh set, Ryan Ratajczak became the All Time career leader in the men's volleyball program competing in 343 sets in his four-year career. He is currently tied as the career leader for Matches Played, and after he steps on the court for this week's matches, he will offically become the All Time leader in matches played as well.

Hilbert opened the afternoon with a three-set loss to Medaille.  The Mavericks went on three different 5-0 runs to take the first set 25-17.  The middle set played out like the first with Medaille building a lead, trading points with the Hawks then going on mini-runs to get to 25 points first.

The third set was an exciting one for fans.  Andrew Duncan's kill gave the Hawks their second tie of the match at 7-7.  When Medaille was whistled for a hitting error, the Hawks grabbed their first lead on the match/day, 8-7.  Both teams traded points continuing to knot the game up every other serve, until Medaille went on a 4-0 run and took at 17-13 advantage.  Several rotations later and two Schwab and one Duncan kill credits, the Hawks were down 19-18.

Medaille extended their lead to three points on several occasions, but the Hawks never allowed the game to get away from them.  Hilbert battled back and tied the game at 24-24 off a Schwab kill.  Three Maverick errors (hitting/service) allowed the visiting team on the neutral court to stay within reach.  Schwab and Tanner Makowski each knotted the game 28-28, then 29-29.  But a Hilbert service error and Medaille Kill gave them the match based on their 31-29 score.

Korey Schwab finished with 12 kills (.243) and Andrew Duncan added 8 kills with only one hitting error (.583).   Ryan Ratajzak posted nine digs and Duncan and Heftka block assisted three times each.

After a brief cooling off period, the Hawks returned to action against D'Youville and played to a five set match.  D'Youville captured the first set 25-21, and escaped with a second set win, 26-24.   Hilbert trailed in the opening set the entire time, but was able to cut the score to one point (21-20) off a Brett Kane Kill, assisted by Ryan Ratajczak.

In the second set, Hilbert never trailed by more than three points, until the Spartans built a 13-8 advantage.  That five point spread stretched to six points (18-12) before the Hawks got right back in the mix (18-16), thanks in large part to D'Youville errors and Kane Kills.  After the Spartan timeout, the hosts found themselves up 21-17.

Hilbert was given a freebie point from  D'Youville, and then Kane served an ace (19-21).  Andrew Duncan picked up back-to-back kills for the first tie and a bad set by the hosts gave Hilbert a 22-21 lead.  D'Youville took two points, gave the Hawks a point off service error and earned one more tallie off a kills to take a 24-23 lead.  Schwab's kill knotted the game once more and two visitor's errors produced a D'Youville slim victory 26-24.

Sets 3 and 4 belonged to Hilbert.  The Hawks held a lead the entire time in both sets and captured a 25-20 victory before running away with the 25-14 set.

In the rubber match, Hilbert jumped out to a 4-2 lead but gave up five straight points surrounding a Hilbert timeout.  The Hawks were not able to recover from that mini-run and fell 15-10 in the fifth set.

Andrew Duncan produced another great hitting performance knocking down 13 kills (.450).  He added four digs, two solo blocks and three block assists.  Korey Schwab posted 13 kills himself and added two service aces and one solo block.

Bryce Perry almost had a double-double with 15 digs and nine kills (two block assists) and Brett Kane reached double figure digs with 11 (seven kills) and worked for two block assists.  Adam Heftka assisted 38 times and was credited with 12 digs.

As a team, the Hawks finished with .139 attack percentage (48 kills) and eight total team blocks. D'Youville tallied 52 kills (.168) and had only six total team blocks.

Hilbert (0-14, 0-4) returns to the road Wednesday, February 25 in their non-conference rematch against Penn State Behrend in Erie, Pa. beginning at 7pm.