April 27, 2011

The 2011 record setting season for the Quincy University men's volleyball team came to an end on Wednesday night in a 3-1 loss to Loyola University in the semi-finals of the Midwestern Intercollegiate Volleyball Association Tournament. Quincy fell 25-19, 25-21, 22-25 and 25-19 to finish the year with a 22-14 overall record.

After recording their first ever win in the MIVA Tournament last Saturday over Ball State University the Hawks came out slow against Loyola. Quincy had just eight kills in the opening set while hitting seven attack errors. Meanwhile Loyola's offense was on top of their game from the start, finishing with at least 13 kills and no more than five errors in all four sets.

The opening set was tied at 13-13 when Joseph Smalzer served back to back aces for the Ramblers to give them some breathing room. The Hawks trailed 21-18 after a Loyola service error but Loyola closed the set out with four of the final five points.

The Quincy attack finally showed signs of finding their footing in game two as they hit .161 as a team with 11 kills and six errors but despite Loyola hitting their match low .276 in the set it was not enough for the Hawks to pull out a win. The Hawks trailed just 20-19 late but were unable once more to get the go ahead points late.

Finally the Hawks offense was clicking in the third set as they hit a match high 16 kills with just three errors for a .464 team hitting percentage. The two teams were even at 8-8 when the Hawks attack went on a roll and opened up an 18-11 lead before holding on for the win.

Unfortunately for Quincy they were unable to maintain that momentum and hit just .097 in the fourth set with 12 kills and nine errors. Quincy hit .195 as a team in the match with 47 kills and 25 errors while Loyola hit .431 as a team with 57 kills and just 13 errors.

Quincy was led by Joseph Ascher's 14 kills while Joseph Sokol added 11 kills and six digs. Andrew Ouano finished with 39 assists and Tanner Wright added seven digs.

Quincy finishes the season with a 22-14 overall record, their most wins in program history. In addition this season they had a program record seven match winning streak and put together their first winning season since 2002.