WITTENBERG, Ohio – The Trine University men's volleyball team will be participating in the Midwest Collegiate Volleyball League (MCVL) Tournament on Friday, April 12 and Saturday, April 13. Wittenberg University will serve as the host for the event, which will decide who gets the league's automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament. The team is searching for their first MCVL Tournament win and first NCAA Tournament appearance.
The Tigers of Wittenberg are the one seed and will play the University of Mount Union in the Semifinal Round beginning at 7 p.m. on Friday. Trine and Baldwin Wallace University will meet in the Semifinal Round as well, with a neutral site game beginning at 4 p.m. on the same day. The two winners will play at 3 p.m. on Saturday.
Tickets for the event can be purchased through Wittenberg's ONLINE BOX OFFICE. Ticket prices are $8 for adults and $5 for children (18 and under) and senior citizens (65+), which allows entry for all matches on a particular day. No admission fee will be charged to students who produce identification cards issued by MCVL member institutions. More information can be found by viewing Wittenberg's MCVL TOURNAMENT CENTRAL PAGE.
The Thunder are 17-6 overall in the 2024 season and tied for second in the conference standings at 7-2. Trine ended up gathering the three seed after Baldwin Wallace won the tiebreaker over the Thunder and Purple Raiders of Mount Union. In the regular season matchup between Trine and Baldwin Wallace, the Yellow Jackets were victorious 3-0 inside Hershey Hall.
The defense for the Thunder has been elite all season, with Trine leading the MCVL in digs per set (12.7) and blocks per set (2.1). Senior defensive specialist and libero Hunter Haas has won the conference's Defensive Player of the Week award five times on the year and is nearing 1,000 career digs. He leads the conference as an individual at 3.58 digs per set. Freshman middle blocker Karl Both broke the school record for most blocks in a match last weekend (9) and is tied for the league lead at 0.97 blocks per set.
On offense, the trio of senior Ted Hofmeister, junior Kevin Boncaro and senior Nick Woolley have been consistent throughout the year. Hofmeister is second in the MCVL at 4.09 kills per set and has amassed over 900 kills in his career. Boncaro is just outside the top five in sixth in the league with 3.40 kills per set. As the primary setter, Woolley averages 9.90 assists per set, good for second in the conference.