CINCINNATI, Ohio – The Trine University men's volleyball team won the second match of a back-to-back this weekend 3-0 at Mount St. Joseph University. The Thunder have won 13 of their last 15 matches to move to 14-10 on the season and the team is 5-1 in Midwest Collegiate Volleyball League (MCVL) play. The Lions fall to 8-12 in 2023 and 1-6 inside the conference.
Trine scored the first six points of the match to send an early statement to their opponents. Johnson-Kuhao Ho'okano-Pelekai had a kill and two service aces during the scoring run. Hunter Haas found Kevin Boncaro for a kill to further extend the first set lead to 12-4. Ted Hofmeister gave the team a 20-11 lead, but the Lions would not go down quietly in the first. A three-point run by Mount St. Joseph was countered by three by the Thunder, including a solo block from Sam Buckingham. Matt Stillman and Ho'okano-Pelekai combined for the set-clinching block to win 25-15.
Once again, Trine was able to get in front early and pull away from their opponents in the second set. A service ace by Carter Steffgen made the score 15-9 and Sam Bhandal distributed a pass to Buckingham to make it 19-11 and force the Lions into using a timeout to regroup. The break would be ineffective as the Thunder went up 2-0 thanks to a 25-17 set victory. Trine had 11 kills and just one error on 25 total attempts (.400 hitting percentage) in the second set alone.
Mount St. Joseph showed grit in the third set after dropping the first two of the afternoon. The Lions held an 11-6 lead until four consecutive points brought the Thunder back to within one. The team asserted their dominance in the middle stages of the set with five straight points to claim a 16-13 lead and force Mount St. Joseph to use both timeouts. The Lions got back to within one at 19-18, but Trine had too much firepower late with a pair of aces by Hofmeister. The final score read 25-20 after three.
Hofmeister was the only student-athlete with double digit kills at 11. Bhandal dished out 29 assists to lead the team. Ho'okano-Pelekai served three total aces to pace the club. Haas had 12 digs to lead the defense.
Next weekend marks the end of the regular season for the Trine men's volleyball team, beginning with a 7 p.m. match at Baldwin Wallace University on Thursday, April 6.