BUFFALO, N.Y. - March 13, 2021 – Hiram College men's volleyball bounced back from an opening set defeat to sweep the next three sets and pick up their first Allegheny Mountain Collegiate Conference (AMCC) win, 3-1, on Saturday against Medaille College in Kevin I. Sullivan Gymnasium.
Neither team was able to build much of a lead in a back-and-forth opening set that saw 13 ties and three lead changes. But following ties of 18-18, 19-19, 20-20, 21-21, 22-22 and 22-23, Medaille rallied for two-straight points on Malachi Jackson's kill and a service ace to take set one, 25-23.
The Terriers and Mavericks kept things close in the beginning of the second set, before the Terriers slowly built their lead. A 5-2 run, highlighted by a pair of blocks from
Tom Supan, gave Hiram an 11-8 advantage, before Medaille close the gap to just one.
Another 5-2 run, this one highlighted by two Supan kills and an ace, made it 16-12. From there, the Mavericks would get no closer than two-points, as with the score 19-17, the Terriers scored six-straight to finish off the set, 25-17 and even the match at one set apiece.
And after another back-and-forth start to the third set, Medaille opened up a two-point, 11-9 advantage on a block by Jackson. But the Terriers responded to claim the lead for good with five-straight points on
Kilvio Montero's serve, taking a 14-11 lead.
Medaille kept things close until Hiram finished off the set with another rally, scoring eight-straight to earn a 25-15 victory in set three, and take a 2-1 lead.
Hiram opened set three with five of the first seven points, opening up a 5-2 lead on a pair of Maverick errors. But Medaille stormed back with a run of their own, taking a 7-6 lead on a service error.
From there, the two sides traded runs, and sat knotted at 9-all before the Terriers finished things off with one last run of their own. Up 11-10, the Terriers scored four-straight and 12 of the next 14 points to setup match point up 24-12.
Aces by
Dangelo Boehner, Montero and Supan, highlighted the 12-2 run, as Hiram looked to put the match away for good.
Medaille came back with one last grasp, scoring four-straight to cut Hiram's lead to 24-16, but
Andrew Gard finished off the set and match with a kill from
Jake Lininger to give the Terriers a 25-16 set four victory, and a 3-1 match win.
Supan led the Terriers with 18 kills, seven digs, five blocks and four aces, while
Andrew Diaz notched a team-high 19 assists.
Defensively, Gard equaled Supan's block output with five of his own, adding six kills and two digs.
As a team, the Terriers hit .291 and held Medaille to just a 0.010 attack percentage for the match, nearly doubling the Mavericks kills, 45-25.
With the win, Hiram moves to 2-1 (1-0 AMCC) on the year, while Medaille falls to 1-3 (0-1 AMCC).
The Terriers return to Hiram for their first home matchup of the year on Wednesday, March 17 when they host the Saint Vincent College Bearcats at 7:00 p.m. in Price Gymnasium.
