GREENVILLE, Pa – The Hilbert College men's volleyball team opened their 2014 season at Thiel College.  The Hawks dropped a 3-0 game to Lakeland before they challenged the hosts in a five-set loss to end the day. 

Freshman Adam Heftka quarterbacked the offense and senior Adam Weaver and sophomore Kory Schwab earned a majority of the kills during the non-conference tri-match.

Lakeland reached 25 points first while holding the Hawks to 16, 14, and 17 points.  Weaver led all players on either side of the net with 11 kills and Schwab added 9 in 20 attempts (.300).  Heftka assisted 22 times and shared blocking highs with Andrew Duncan – 2 assisted blocks each.  Ryan Ratajczak finished with 9 digs.

Lakeland finished the match hitting .324 offensively, with Matt Bilinski credited with 8 kills, while Hilbert hit to a -.027 percentage.
Thiel, who also lost to Lakeland earlier, jumped to a 25-13 opening-set win over Hilbert.  The Hawks responded with a 25-19 win, only to lose the third set, 25-16.  In an exciting fourth set, Hilbert stretched to a 26-24 win and then dropped the final shortened-set, 15-5.

Weaver rebounded with a 23-kill (.226), 3 solo block, and 1 service-ace effort.  Schwab added another great showing at the net chipping in 13 kills.  Heftka was credited with all of Hilbert's assists for the 43 team kills.  Junior Ryan Ratajczak led the defense with 14 digs followed closely by David Mellerski's 8 digs.

The Hawks moved their hitting percentage into the positive (.100), but Thiel reached for a .311 percentage.  Dylan Lasher ended with game-high 14 kills while Corey Hamilton and Zack Rombach shared setting honors for the Tomcats.

Hilbert returns to action next weekend when they travel to the SUNYIT tournament January 24th and 25th.