HIRAM, Ohio - April 7, 2021 – Fresh off their first Allegheny Mountain Collegiate Conference (AMCC) regular season title in program history, Hiram College men's volleyball will look to keep things rolling as they head into the AMCC Men's Volleyball Championship Tournament.
 
The Terriers clinched the No. 1 seed in the conference tournament with their sweep of Geneva on March 31 and will host the No. 4-seeded Penn State Altoona Lions (3-5, 3-4 AMCC) on Wednesday, April 7 at 7:00 p.m. inside Price Gymnasium in the AMCC Championship Tournament semifinal.
 
Due to Hiram College and the AMCC's COVID-19 protocols, no spectators are permitted to attend Hiram men's volleyball home contests. All Terrier men's volleyball home games will be live-streamed and will be available on-demand on the Hiram College Network at team1sports.com/hiram.
 
On the other side of the bracket, the No. 2-seeded Geneva College Tornadoes (10-6, 5-1 AMCC) will host the No. 3-seeded Penn St. Behrend Lions (5-6, 4-3 AMCC) at 7:30 p.m. The AMCC championship game will then be held at the higher seed on Saturday, April 10, with the winner getting an automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament.
 
"We are very excited to be playing in our first conference tournament in program history," Head Coach Kevin Kustura said. "We've accomplished a lot as a program this year but the job isn't done yet."
 
Hiram finished with year with a perfect 7-0 record in AMCC conference play, and an 8-1 record overall in their first year under Kustura. The Terriers opened the season with a 3-2 win in non-conference play over Geneva, before suffering their first and only loss of the year to Wittenberg.
 
The Terriers wouldn't lose again the rest of the regular season, as they swept through the AMCC, opening conference play with a 3-1 win over Medaille on March 13, before wrapping up the regular season with a Senior Day sweep of Hilbert (N.Y.) on April 3 in Price Gymnasium to clinch the regular season conference title.
 
"At the beginning of the year we had a goal to make the conference tournament and we accomplished that and some," Kustura said. "Now we have a chance to compete for a conference title and the boys are relishing the opportunity to get out there and compete at high level this week."
 
The Terriers are led by a trio of juniors, including AMCC Preseason Player of the Year Tom Supan. Supan's notched 80 kills (4.42 kills/set) in six matches played, while junior Kilvio Montero leads the Terriers with 102 kills (3.19 kills/set) over nine matches. Junior Dangelo Boehner rounds out the Terriers Top 3 with 67 kills (2.09 kills/set), with seniors Hunter Rock and Andrew Gard right behind him with 42 (1.31 kills/set) and 40 kills (1.18 kills/set), respectively.  
 
Boehner leads the Terriers and the AMCC with a .403 hitting percentage, while Montero's notched a team-high 15 service aces. Senior Jake Lininger's tallied a team-high 197 assists, with junior Andrew Diaz right behind him with 141.
 
Defensively, Cory Fischer leads Hiram with 115 digs (3.48 digs/set), while Boehner and Gard top the Terriers with 24.0 and 17.0 blocks each. Fischer's 115 digs are good for forth in the AMCC, while his 3.48 digs per set lead the conference.
 
As a team, the Terriers lead the AMCC with a .278 hitting percentage, averaging a league-high 12.0 kills per set. The Terriers also lead the AMCC in blocks per set, averaging 1.66 and are second in service aces and digs per set.
 
Hiram is also holding opponents to just a .138 hitting percentage and 9.1 kills per set.
 
In their lone matchup against Penn St. Altoona this season, the Terriers topped the Lions, 3-2, on the road in Altoona, Pa. Hiram took the first two sets, 25-20 and 25-19, dropped next two, 25-23, before coming back to take the fifth set, 15-9.
 
Montero led the Terriers against the Lions with a career-high 22 kills and eight digs, while Boehner and Rock added 16 and 12 kills apiece. Defensively, Fischer led Hiram with 17 digs, while Lininger notched a team-high 35 assists.
 
All-time, the Terriers are 3-4 against Penn St. Altoona, 2-3 against Geneva and 1-5 against Penn St. Behrend. Hiram topped Geneva in five sets on the road to open the 2021 campaign before sweeping the Tornadoes at home to clinch the No. 1 seed in the conference tournament, while the Terriers defeated Behrend in five sets at home on March 20.
 
For Penn St. Behrend, freshman Philip Silva leads the way with 98 kills (3.38 kills/set), while sophomore Matthew Faust's notched a team-high 158 assists. Defensively, freshman Jared Bodisch's tallied a team-high 58 digs, while freshman Trey Sadler and Silva each have totaled 13 blocks.
 
As a team, Behrend is hitting .180, averaging 11.23 kills and 10.68 digs per set. Behrend is 1-3 at home and 2-2 on the road, while the Terriers are 4-0 at home and 4-1 on the road.
 
Fans can watch the AMCC Semifinal on the Hiram College Network at https://team1sports.com/hiram/ or follow the live stats at https://hiramterriers.com/sidearmstats/mvball/summary.
 
The No. 1-seeded Terriers host the No. 4-seeded Lions in the AMCC Men's Volleyball Championship Tournament Semifinals on Wednesday, April 7 at 7:00 p.m., with the winner advancing to the AMCC Tournament Championship on Sunday.