In just their second match of the season, Benedictine University men's volleyball took another ranked opponent to five sets, falling to #11 Stevenson University on Sunday afternoon. The Eagles then went on to defeat Augustana College in straight sets.
 
STEVENSON FINAL
Benedictine 2, Stevenson 3 (20-25, 25-16, 26-24, 22-25, 13-15)
 
THE DETAILS
• Benedictine trailed the entire first set despite a 3-0 run from Nick Malak that put the Eagles within one (18-19)
• Stevenson tallied 14 kills and hit .346 for the 25-20 win
• In set two, the Eagles took an early lead and never looked back, winning 25-16 and collecting 16 kills
• Elijah Medlock tallied 6 kills in the set while Adriel Rivas had four
• Benedictine once again led the entire set but Stevenson tied it up at 22
• The Eagles would go on to win the third set after a Kyle VanStedum and Joe Lock block
• Set four saw both teams trade points early on until it was tied at 22
• Two straight Stevenson kills forced set point and the Eagles lost the set on an error
• Set five came down to the wire but costly unforced BenU errors allowed SU to take home the 15-13 win
• Neither team hit above .200 in the match with BenU tallying 63 kills (.160) and Stevenson with 51 kills (.176)
• Benedictine tallied16 service errors with 9.5 blocks while Stevenson had nine service errors and 20 team blocks
 
STAT LEADERS
KILLS: Medlock (20), Rivas (15), Nick Malak (12), VanStedum (10)
ASSISTS: Lock (59)
ACES: Lock (3)
DIGS: Medlock (13), Jonathan Valentini (11)
BLOCKS: Lock (3.5), Chase Olson (2)
 
AUGUSTANA FINAL
Benedictine 3, Augustana 0 (25-12, 25-15, 25-16)
 
THE DETAILS
• Benedictine hit .615 in the first set while holding Augustana to just a .040 attack percentage for the 25-12 win
• In set two, the Eagles led the entire time and tallied eight kills and five blocks in the 25-15 win
• The third set was all Benedictine, hitting .545 with 14 kills for the 25-16 win
• The Eagles tallied 30 kills and hit .464 with 22 digs and eight blocks
 
STAT LEADERS
KILLS: Medlock (7), Malak (6)
ASSISTS: Lock (23)
DIGS: Medlock (5), Malak (5)
BLOCKS: Lock (2), Olson (2)
 
UP NEXT
The #14 Benedictine men's volleyball team (2-1) is back in action on Friday, January 25 when they host Mount St. Joseph at 7:00 p.m. in the Rice Center.