ALLIANCE, Ohio – At the Midwest Collegiate Volleyball League (MCVL) Tournament Semifinal match, the Trine University men's volleyball team suffered a 3-1 defeat at the hands of the top-seeded University of Mount Union Purple Raiders. The second match between the two teams in the last week ended in the same fashion as the regular season finale. Trine ends their season with a mark of 14-13 while Mount Union moves on to face the two-seed, Baldwin Wallace University, in the MCVL Tournament Finals.
The Thunder got a team-high 22 kills from Ted Hofmeister in the match, a mark that was also his season-high. Kevin Boncaro added 11 kills as well. Sam Bhandal was responsible for 46 of the team's 49 assists on the evening. Hunter Haas led a trio of Trine student-athletes with double-digit digs. Haas tallied 15 while Boncaro notched 13 and Hofmeister 12. Defensively, Boncaro was responsible for five solo blocks.
The Purple Raiders were efficient in a first set win 25-21 thanks to 13 kills and just three errors. The Thunder fell behind 14-7 before scoring six in a row to cut the deficit down to one. Hofmeister had three kills in that span alone. Mount Union began to ease away again and claimed a 21-16 lead, but the fight in Trine was palpable late in the first. Matt Stillman capped off a three-point swing in favor of the visitors to get to within two at 21-19, but the Purple Raiders would stay ahead for the remainder of the set.
Set number two would be the best of the night for the Thunder as they would record a 25-22 victory. Three blocks would help spark a 5-0 run to begin the second, but slowly the Purple Raiders creeped back into it. They would eventually draw back to even at 14-14 and the rest of the second would be a dogfight. The teams went toe-to-toe and traded points until Mount Union went ahead 22-21, but four consecutive points for Trine sealed the set win.
With the match even at 1-1, Johnson-Kuhao Ho'okano-Pelekai helped get the Thunder in front in the third set as well. He and Hofmeister each had aces en route to an 18-15 lead at one point in the set. Ho'okano-Pelekai put another kill on his resume to make it 21-18, but late magic by Mount Union allowed them to regain control of the match with a 25-23 set win.
Once more, Trine was ahead early in the set, but the Purple Raiders came from behind to get back in front. The fourth set was tied at 10-10, but from there Mount Union forged ahead. Hofmeister and Stillman had kills late in the set to get the Thunder back to within one multiple times, but were not able to retake the lead in a 25-20 defeat.
For the third consecutive season, the men's volleyball team has set a new record for the most wins in a season, this year with 14. The team also had a stout 8-1 record on their home floor, the best in program history.