The Benedictine University men's volleyball team has two matches on the schedule for the upcoming week. BenU will head north to Lakeland College for a Midwest Collegiate Volleyball League matchup on Wednesday night before playing Rivier University in a neutral site game on Saturday morning.
Benedictine (4-10, 2-5) comes off of a 0-2 week, as the team dropped matches to two tough opponents. On Friday night, nationally-ranked Massachusetts Institute of Technology won in four sets at the Dan and Ada Rice Center, holding the Eagles to a .123 hitting percentage. Two days later, conference foe Milwaukee School of Engineering defeated the Eagles 3-1 in Lisle behind 52 assists.
Sterling Glover tallied 22 kills on the week, while
Markus Riemer added 58 assists. Benedictine now sits in sixth place in the MCVL.
Wednesday: at Lakeland (9-9, 4-3), 7:00 p.m.
On Wednesday night, the Eagles will head north to Lakeland for a 7:00 p.m. conference match. At 4-3, the Muskies currently occupy fourth-place in the MCVL, which is the final qualifying spot for the MCVL Tournament. After starting the season 8-4, the second-year program has dropped five of the last six matches. However, four of those five defeats came against ranked opponents (Carthage College, UC Santa Cruz, Stevens Institute of Technology, and MIT).
The Eagles and Muskies already met once this season, with the Muskies downing BenU 3-0 in Lisle on Valentine's Day. Lakeland held Benedictine below 20 points in each set, taking down the Eagles 25-18, 25-15, 25-14 and holding the Eagles to a -.022 hitting percentage. Despite the team's offensive woes,
Eric Tarnow managed to lead BenU with eight kills and a .200 hitting percentage in the loss. It was the only straight set defeat BenU has had in its opening season.
Saturday: vs. Rivier (7-6) in Kenosha, Wisconsin, 11:00 a.m.
Benedictine will head up to Carthage on Saturday morning to face the Raiders of Rivier University in a neutral site game. Hailing from Nashua, New Hampshire, Rivier competes in the Great Northeast Athletic Conference and currently holds the top spot in its standings with a 3-0 GNAC record. The team has played great volleyball of late, winning its last three matches in straight sets.
The Raiders have been a powerhouse in the GNAC, winning seven straight conference championships. In addition, the team has spent 157 weeks ranked in the AVCA Division III poll, the eighth most in D3 history. Currently, the Raiders are ranked 12th in the poll and figure to rise after going 3-0 last week.
