ANGOLA, Ind. – The Trine University men's volleyball team pushed their win streak to eight matches on Monday night when Olivet College made a visit to Hershey Hall. The Thunder won in straight sets for the sixth consecutive match to move to 11-9 overall this season and the team is 2-0 in Midwest Collegiate Volleyball League (MCVL) play. The Comets of Olivet fall to 7-11 in 2023 and 0-3 in league action.
The first set was won by Trine 25-19 thanks to a .412 team hitting percentage. The Thunder had 16 kills in the first compared to two errors in the set. A solo block by Johnson-Kuhao Ho'okano-Pelekai pushed the lead to 12-6 in the first, but Olivet was able to tally five straight points to work their way back into it. Sam Bhandal found Ted Hofmeister for a kill that turned momentum back to the home team. The Comets would once again get to within one at 20-19, but Ho'okano-Pelekai tallied three of the final five points in Trine's 25-19 win.
Olivet took an early lead in the second set and forced head coach Will Dowdy to use a timeout trailing 11-8. The break would be effective for Trine as they claimed the lead with a rally of five points in a row. With the second set tied at 17, another five-point scoring run for the Thunder put them in full control of the match. Kevin Boncaro had the set-clinching kill at 25-21.
Up 2-0, Trine dominated the start of the third set and got ahead 5-0. Matt Stillman had five kills in the third set alone as the team continued to poke holes in the Comet defense. On 28 total attacks, the Thunder put together 14 kills and hit .393 in the set. Ho'okano-Pelekai put the match to bed with a kill to win the third 25-14, the most lopsided set of the match.
Stillman and Hofmeister led a balanced offensive attack for Trine with 11 kills each. Stillman had a hitting percentage of .846 after converting 11 of his 13 attempts and added four block assists. Boncaro and Ho'okano-Pelekai added nine kills each. 37 of the team's 38 assists were credited to Bhandal. In the back row, Hunter Haas (11) and Boncaro (10) had double-digit dig totals.
Conference play at home continues on Friday, March 24 when the team celebrates Senior Day against the Wabash College Little Giants. First serve is slated for 7 p.m.
