ST. LOUIS, Mo. – The Trine University men's volleyball team continued Midwest Collegiate Volleyball League (MCVL) play on Friday night with a road match at Fontbonne University. The Thunder (12-4, 2-0 MCVL) were able to sweep the opposing Griffins (4-13, 0-1 MCVL) for their ninth straight win. It is the team's seventh sweep in the last eight matches as well.
Kevin Boncaro led the team with 16 kills and Ted Hofmeister was in double figures as well with 11. Nick Woolley assisted on 37 of the 40 kills. Hunter Haas had 12 digs from the back row and Boncaro added five blocks (two solo) defensively. The team hit .260 as a group with 34 digs.
Fontbonne was ahead in the first set, but an 8-3 scoring run in favor of Trine led by three kills from Boncaro turned the tides in the set. That stretch would allow the Thunder to take a 16-13 lead and they would not look back from there. The Griffins were able to hang around, but a kill by Johnson-Kuhao Ho'okano-Pelekai led to the final Fontbonne timeout with Trine up 23-20 and a solo block by Boncaro wrapped up a 25-21 set one win. A match-high 17 kills were credited to the Thunder in the first.
Neither side was able to go up by more than two points early in the second set, but Karl Both began a scoring run of four consecutive points for the visitors to go ahead 15-12. An ace by Woolley at 23-19 forced the Griffins to use their last timeout in the second and it would be effective with four kills out of five points, but Boncaro secured the set win at 25-23 off a feed by Woolley.
The third set was the most lopsided of the three with the Thunder on top early. Back-to-back service aces by Matt Stillman helped put Trine in front 11-6. A timeout called by Fontbonne would not help them to withstand the scoring attack by the Thunder as the lead was extended to 18-8. Despite the result seemingly at hand, the Griffins fought back to make the final tally look competitive, but three straight points ended the set and match at 25-17.
Trine looks to move to 3-0 in conference play on Saturday, March 16 when the team squares off with Wabash College beginning at 7 p.m.