GREENVILLE, Pa. – The Trine University men's volleyball team recorded their fourth straight victory on Friday night at Thiel College in three sets. The Thunder are now 7-4 overall while the Tomcats of Theil falter to 5-8 in the 2024 season.
The team had a hitting percentage of .282 on the night with 41 digs from the back row as well to tie a season-high in a three-set match this year. Trine also had ten blocks at the net to help assert their dominance. Kevin Boncaro paced the offense with 15 kills, the only man in double figures. Matt Stillman converted six of his eight swings and was a part of seven of the team's ten blocks (two solo). Nick Woolley had a team-high 27 assists and Hunter Haas led in digs with 14.
A pair of blocks by the Thunder forced Thiel to use their first timeout with Trine ahead 12-6 in the first set. The run would continue later in the set with Karl Both recording a pair of kills and an ace for the team with a 25-14 victory to go up 1-0. The Thunder took advantage of nine Tomcat errors and a negative hitting percentage to take control of the match in the opening stanza.
The second set would be even more impressive for Trine as they had 15 kills and just two errors (.481 hitting percentage) to claim that stint as well, 25-12. Ted Hofmeister was serving when the team went on a scoring run to make it 6-1 and the team would not relinquish the lead from there. Stillman was the catalyst of the scoring in the middle stages of the second to increase the lead to 17-5 and Boncaro added on to his impressive scoring total with the set-clinching kill.
Unlike the first two sets, Thiel was able to pull away in the third set and forced Head Coach Will Dowdy to take a timeout trailing 16-11. Coming out of the break, Ethan McLenon and Woolley had kills to reclaim momentum in the match. An 8-2 run led by Boncaro would draw the Thunder even at 21-21 as the Tomcats used both timeouts to try to stay alive in the match. Continuing his heroics, it was Boncaro that put the match to bed at 25-23.
Trine competes in a tri-match hosted by Penn State University-Behrend on Saturday, February 17 as the road trip continues for the Thunder. The team will face Buffalo State University in their first match beginning at 2 p.m. and then will take on the host Lions at 4 p.m.