ADRIAN, Mich. – The Siena Heights men's volleyball team pulled off a win over Mount Vernon Nazarene in five sets inside the SHU Fieldhouse on Senior Day Saturday. The Saints (15-6, 9-5 WHAC) battled the Cougars in a highly competitive match that needed all five sets to decide a winner.
Senior Ramon Matos led offensively with a career-high 26 kills in the win. Matos added an assist, an ace, and five total blocks to his stat line on the afternoon. Fellow senior Alex Garavalia finished the day with 13 kills and four digs. Shevin Blades registered five kills and five blocks, while Joudiel Poveymirow tallied 21 digs to lead defensively. Zak Tucker recorded a double-double with a career-high 54 assists and 12 digs.
Each team started with a 3-0 run as the first set was close. The Cougars built a slight 21-18 lead, but SHU rallied to knot the score up with a 3-0 run. The score was tied at 24 and again at 25 before two kills by MVNU's Caden Donaldson gave the 1-0 lead to the Cougars.
Mount Vernon Nazarene jumped out to a 5-2 lead early in set two. Matos registered four kills on the way to helping Siena battle back and tied the score at 10. A 4-0 run by the Cougars pushed the advantage to 15-12, but again, the Saints would battle back to tie things at 18. Matos tallied a kill that sparked a 4-0 run and gave SHU a 22-19 lead. MVNU rallied to tie the score at 23 before a kill by Jakob Pickett gave the Saints the set point with a 24-23 score. Brendon Down and Blades ended things with a block on the next play, and the Saints tied the set score at one game each.
Siena Heights cut down a five-point lead (15-10) in the third to come within one point (17-16) of catching the Cougars, but the visitor held on for the 25-21 decision to take the 2-1 lead.
The Saints maintained a slim edge throughout the fourth set before a kill by Blades broke a 14-14 deadlock and ignited a 3-0 run. The lead grew to six as Blade registered another kill that gave SHU set point. Two errors allowed MVNU to come within four points of the lead, but a service error on the next play gave Siena the set and forced five.
The Cougars took advantage early in the final set with a 4-1 lead. Garavalia got back-to-back kills to start a 3-0 run that tied things at four points each. The score tied five more times as the teams matched with 10 points. Kills from Matos and Garavalia gave SHU a 12-10 lead before the Saints took the match with a 15-12 decision in the fifth.
Up Next
The Saints have qualified for the Wolverine-Hoosier Athletic Conference (WHAC) tournament that begins next Friday, April 1, at the Schaefer Center on the campus of Indiana Tech in Fort Wayne, Indiana. Tournament matchups will be announced after all regular-season matches have concluded.
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