ANGOLA, Ind. – The Trine University men's volleyball team hosted Marian University out of Wisconsin for their home opening match of the 2024 season and came away with a 3-1 victory in an even battle throughout. The result puts both Trine and Marian at a 3-1 overall record.
The Thunder had a slight edge in kills at 54-53 and the two were even with 49 assists. While the Sabres held the advantage in digs at 52-41, Trine had 11 blocks to Marian's five. Ted Hofmeister (16 kills) and Kevin Boncaro (13 kills) were each in double figures to lead the Thunder. In the match, Hofmeister become the program's all-time leading kill artist with 658. Nick Woolley had a team-high 42 assists and Hunter Haas led with 16 digs. Liam Northrup was a part of six different blocks for the team.
The Sabres took an early lead in set one and carried that to their only win of the night, 25-21. Marian went up 15-10, the largest lead in the set before a pair of blocks cut into their lead. Kills by Johnson-Kuhao Ho'okano-Pelekai and Boncaro brought the deficit down to one at 16-15, but Marian was able to string it back out to hold on for the set win.
The Sabres went up five in set two as well at 8-3, but back-to-back kills by Hofmeister would draw the Thunder even at 15 all. Northrup was disruptive at the net and helped put Trine up 21-19 and force a timeout by Marian to regroup. Karl Both would do the same late in the 25-22 victory in the second set.
Set three was the most lopsided in favor of the Thunder at 25-18. Trine took advantage of a match-high nine errors by the Sabres in the set. Three consecutive solo blocks by Boncaro, Both and Ethan McLenon gave the Thunder a 6-2 edge and they would not look back from there. A pair of aces of the hand of Boncaro extended the lead to 18-11 and after a little run by Marian to cut the Trine lead to two at 19-17, six of the final seven points went to the home squad.
The freshman middle blocker Both took advantage of some ill-placed digs on the other side by Marian and sent them to the floor for kills to help Trine get ahead 13-7. Thanks to a match-high hitting percentage of .345 (13 kills, three errors), the Thunder took a 19-13 lead. The Sabres would dig deep late in the set to try to force a winner-take-all fifth, but Woolley would nab a couple kills to help secure the set win at 25-22.
Trine was perfect on 80 receiving attempts and had a .291 hitting percentage on the night. 11 total blocks are well above their season average early in 2024.
The Thunder are back in action on Sunday, January 28 beginning at 3 p.m. against Lakeland University inside Hershey Hall.
