BEREA, OH.  – The Hilbert College Men's Volleyball team returned for day two of the Baldwin Wallace Men's Volleyball Invitational Tournament today and faced a pair of undefeated teams from the Midwest.
 
The Hawks lost the early 10 am game to Marion University (Wis) and the 12:30 pm contest to Loras College (Iowa) recording a 0-4 record very early in the season.
   
HOW IT HAPPENED – Marion
 
Hilbert and Marion were neck and neck in the opening set trading point for point until the Sabers stretched a 12-9 margin to 20-9, winning 25-13.

Marion opened with a 7-1 lead and built an 18-6 advantage before taking the 25-10 second-set victory.

The Sabers went on multiple five-point runs to establish the match set win (25-7).

The Hawks earned 18 points, 15 kills, three service aces, 15 assists and 21 digs while giving up 49 points, 40 kills, five aces, four blocks, 38 assists and 31 digs to Marion.

Chris Laboy led the Hawks with five kills while Alex Overhoff added four kills and six digs.  Brad Converse added six digs as Ryan Levcik led with 14 assists and five digs.
 
HOW IT HAPPENED – Loras
 
The opening set against Loras was very competitive.  The match consisted of two lead changes in addition to Hilbert tying the score eleven times – the last at 17-17.  The Duhawks earned their next five points building a 24-22 lead.  Mehkai Francis and Converse were credited with a block assist to force the 12th tie in the game (24-24) before Loras outlasted Hilbert's rally to earn the 26-24 win.

Hilbert, trailing 6-2 early, took a 10-9 lead off a Laboy kill and were given two more points off Duhawk errors (12-10).  The Hawks then stretched it to a four-point lead (16-12) off a pair of Overhoff kills and continued to roll to a 20-15 advantage. Loras knotted the game at 20 and again at 21 before they built a 24-21 margin.  Converse and Connor Higgins each earned kills, inching Hilbert back (23-24) but a Hawks service error gave the Duhawks the 25-23 win.

Loras slowly stretched their lead throughout the third set, tacking 3-to-4 points on at a time establishing a 19-10 score.  Hilbert surrendered three of the five Duhawk points, setting the 24-10 and eventually the 25-12 match win.
 
The Hawks earned 25 points, 21 kills, one service ace, three blocks, 18 assists and 23 digs while giving up 53 points, 39 kills, nine aces, five blocks, 39 assists and 28 digs to Loras.

Chris Laboy was credited with five kills and led with seven digs while Alex Overhoff hit a blistering .438 leading with eight kills, one error in 16 attempts.  Austin Chandler finished with 18 assists.
 
UP NEXT

Hilbert (0-4) will host their WHITE OUT AMCC  home opener this Tuesday, January 24th against Medaille University at 7pm.