MOUNT VERNON, Ohio - February 4, 2025 - Matthew Albano achieved the 2,000-assist milestone on Tuesday evening, as the senior notched 44 assists in a five-set win over Mount Vernon Nazarene inside Ariel Arena: 22-25, 25-16, 23-25, 25-21, 15-11. With 2,041 career assists, Albano extended his program record even more and boosted his team to a critical non-conference victory along the way.

Albano led the team with 971 assists in the 2024 season and is now at 209 assists for the 2025 season. For Tuesday's match alone, the Huntington Beach, CA native assisted on 44 of Hiram's 48 kills, with those 44 assists marking the fifth instance of him recording 44+ assists in a match since the start of last season.

Cullen Sivak added a career-high 14 kills and Kyle Martini had a program-record nine total blocks in a match that was built for the statistical fanatics. Hiram recorded at least 10 kills in each of the first four sets before erasing a 6-4 deficit in the fifth set behind the serving prowess of Albano and the emergence of Sivak as another of the team's talented pin hitters.

It marked the first all-time meeting between the two programs, with MVNU emerging in the NAIA ranks following a winning season in 2024.

Albano recorded a pair of service aces and Sivak had two tricky kills in that fifth set alone, propelling Hiram to a 12-7 lead and eventually a clean finish to a tight match. The Terriers rode the momentum they had already gained in the fourth set, when the team won six of the last eight points behind kills from Martini (two), Jackson Deubner and Sivak.

Martini was his versatile self yet again, tallying eight kills, two service aces and those nine total blocks. Two of those blocks came on Hiram's final two points of the match, lifting the senior ahead of Dangelo Boehner for the most total blocks in a single match in program history.

The Terriers also played well in the second set, when five different student-athletes tallied at least one kill. MVNU was also held to eight kills and 11 attack errors during that span, a testament to the balanced nature of the Terriers roster.

Next on the agenda for Hiram men's volleyball is a tri-match on the road against Thiel College and Baldwin Wallace University on Saturday at 3 p.m. and 5 p.m. inside Ursprung Gymnasium in Berea, OH.