HIRAM, Ohio – February 20, 2026 – Hiram battled it out in Price Gymnasium on Friday evening against the Chatham Cougars in a five-set match that ended in a Terriers victory: 11-25, 25-17, 25-22, 20-25, 17-15. The victory gives the team a 2-0 record in PAC play in the early stages of the conference slate.

The Terriers erased a 6-2 deficit in the fifth set, scoring 6 straight points and eventually winning a back-and-forth battle in the final moments to secure the victory. The score was tied at 13-13, 14-14 and 15-15 -- on each occasion, Hiram won the point and gave themselves a chance to walk away with the win.

A kill from Cullen Sivak and a Chatham attack error marked the final two points of the match, pushing Hiram to 2-0 in the PAC and 5-3 overall.

In the first set, Hiram couldn't seem to find their footing, dropping the set by a score of 25-11.

Despite the outcome of the first set, the Terrier's didn't let that slow them down and they came back stronger, taking the next two sets, 25-17 and 25-22. On the offensive end, Hiram put up 24 kills in the second and third sets, which was paired with a combined 10 blocks to keep the team's competitive edge both offensively and defensively.

In the fourth set, Hiram looked to close things out for the evening, but Chatham had other plans, taking the fourth set with 15 kills and just six attack errors on 37 attempts to push things to a fifth and final set of the match.

The Terriers were then able to seal the match behind the come-from-behind effort. Five of the team's points in the decisive set came on the serve of Colin Brooks.

Leading Hiram was Derek Chiang with 16 kills and Kekoa Tani with 10 kills. Darren Chiang had 37 assists, while Derek Chiang had eight total blocks (T-third most in single match in program history). Brooks finished with three service aces to lead all players.

Next up, the Terriers will host a conference matchup against the Saint Vincent Bearcats on Wednesday at 7 p.m.