Men's Volleyball honors seniors before loss to Stritch
| Published: 03/26/2013 |
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MILWAUKEE — Before they took the court Tuesday night for the final time at the Kern Center, five MSOE men's volleyball seniors were honored in a ceremony where family and friends joined the players to celebrate their accomplishments and achievements. MSOE went on to lose the match to Cardinal Stritch, 25-20, 25-23 and 26-24.
Brian Main (Sr./Lamar, Mo./ME), David Johnson (Sr./Glenview, Ill./ME), Jack Geary (Sr./Milwaukee/ME), John Cote (Sr./Orland Park, Ill./ME) and Alex Harbour (Sr./Middleton, Wis./AE) were each recognized prior to the match. The players gave flowers to the family and friends in attendance and individual and team accomplishments were read to the crowd by public address announcer Daven Howard. Johnson, Geary, Cote and Harbor are the last men remaining from MSOE's nationally ranked 2010 Midwest III Conference Championship team.
Once the match got underway, MSOE (6-16, 1-2 CVC West) started slowly, committing nine errors and hitting just .033 in the first set. Down just two, the set slipped away when the Raiders lost consecutive points on just two hits: A service error by Main, followed by a service ace the other way.
After a 16-16 tie in the second set, Cardinal Stritch (21-11, 10-1 MAMVIC East) went up four, 23-19, but had to fight off a Raider charge late. After a Main kill and a service error for each side, MSOE got a Johnson kill and saw Stritch commit a ball-handling error to pull within one, 24-23. Stritch's Noah Mader proved to be too much on the frame's final attack, though, taking one of a game-high 36 assists off the fingertips of Alo Tauese and turning it into a set-ending kill. Sharp throughout, Stritch was its best in the second set, hitting .370.
MSOE seized control of the third set late, holding a 24-21 lead, but proceded to play its sloppiest volleyball of the night at the worst possible time, committing five-consecutive errors to hand the set and match to the Wolves.
The Raiders consistently struggled with the Wolves' front line. Stritch accumulated four solo blocks and 10 block assists. MSOE, meanwhile, recorded no solo blocks and negated its two block assists with two blocking errors.
Main had 15 kills to lead all attackers and Johnson added 11 while hitting .467. Collin Hartman paced the Wolves with 11 kills and hit .611. Mader had 10 kills and libero Patrick Ronan had 11 digs for Stritch.
MSOE will take eight days off before wrapping up the regular season with Continental Volleyball Conference East Division play, April 4-6, at Carthage College in Kenosha, Wis. MSOE will begin the three-match, three-day stretch against Carthage at 7 p.m. CDT on Thurs., April 4, then will face UC Santa Cruz at 4 p.m. the following day and Fontbonne at 5 p.m. on Saturday to round out its 2013 slate of matches.
