ADRIAN, Mich. -- The Siena Heights men's volleyball defeated Cornerstone in straight sets to earn the first win in Wolverine-Hoosier Athletic Conference (WHAC) on Wednesday night inside the SHU Fieldhouse. The Saints (5-1, 1-1 WHAC) held the Golden Eagles to a .092 hitting percentage while totaling 36 kills and a team hitting total of .293 in the winning effort.
Ramon Matos continues to be the Siena's go-to attacker as he led with a match-high ten kills on the evening. Shevin Blades hit a monster .636 to tally eight kills while recording three blocks. Jakob Pickett and Marc Arsenault hit in the .500's and completed the match with six kills. Zak Tucker paced play for SHU with 29 assists. He helped on defense with seven digs and also earned four kills. Joudiel Poveymirow anchored the backline with a match-high 15 digs.
The match started competitive with both teams trading points and leads up to an even 9-9. Pickett got a kill, and Poveymirow tallied two-straight service aces to complete a 4-0 run and push SHU ahead 13-9. The lead was extended to 18-12 before SHU nursed the advantage to a 25-18 decision to snag the 1-0 lead.
Cornerstone rattled off the first three points of the second set on the way to a 7-3 lead. The deficit stayed put up to a 15-11 score in favor of the Golden Eagles before the Saints scored five of the following six points to knot things up at 16. With the 19-18, Arsenault got a kill that ignited a 4-0 run that put SHU up 23-18. Cornerstone received two more points, but Siena closed out the set with a 25-20 result and take the 2-0 lead.
The third frame was another back-and-forth affair up to a 9-9 tie before the Saints used two 3-0 runs to edge the Golden Eagles 14-10. Cornerstone cut the SHU lead to one point, 19-18, but the Saints used two kills from Matos to jump to a 22-18 advantage. The visitors scored two straight, but SHU held on to score three of the next of the five points to end the match in three and earn the win.
UP NEXT
The Saints hit the road for their first league road match on Saturday when they face Goshen at 3:00 p.m. It's the first matchup between the Saints and the Maple Leafs (4-2, 0-2 WHAC).
