LATROBE, Pa.  – The Hilbert College Men's Volleyball team traveled to Saint Vincent College for the AMCC Men's Volleyball Game of the Week this afternoon. 

The Hawks dropped a very competitive 4-set match, falling 25-20, 25-23, 23-25, and 25-20 to the Bearcats.
   
HOW IT HAPPENED

• Hilbert trailed the entire first set but had one of their strongest hitting percentage performances this season.  The Hawks finished with one more kill that St. Vincent (11-10) but gave up five points to the hosts off service aces.  The Hawks trailed by 2-3 points most of the set, yet pulled within one point (18-19) off a Nick Diello kill before falling 25-20.
• The opening rallies in the second set mirrored the first set.  The Hawks trailed by as many as four points until a Diello kill, an Austin Chandler service ace and SVC attack error forced the hosts to call a timeout.  Hilbert continued to roll with two more kills, knotting the game at 12-12.  Diello added a service ace and  gave Hilbert a 14-13 lead. Both teams traded side outs and with the Hawks trailing 18-16, Brad Converse and Diello earned back-to-back kills to even the score again (18-18).  The game moved to 23-22 with Hilbert up so SVC called timeout.  The Bearcats closed the game with two kills and a service ace for the 25-23 win.
• Both teams were at the net either attacking or defending, and finally, Dylan Suter earned a solo block which stopped St. Vincent's 4-point run.  After the Hawks called a timeout trailing 11-5, they clawed their way back to a 12-11 lead which forced a Bearcat timeout.  Hilbert continued to control the pace to the 21-20 score.  SVC evened the score on their next transition, yet Ryan Levcik added a kill and Converse's service ace stretched the margin for the Hawks (23-21).  Alex Overhoff, who lifted Hilbert with a kill and the two-point margin (24-22) forcing another Bobcat timeout, finished the set with another kill and gave Hilbert the 25-23 win.
• The Hawks found themselves down 7-2 early but rallied back with a pair of three-point runs before forcing a 13-all score.  St. Vincent went back up 18-15 before back-to-back kills by Levcik and a block assist by Suter and Levcik set the score at 18-18 and SVC timeout.  The Bearcats earned five of their final eight points for the 25-20 victory.

The Hawks earned 88 points, 47 kills, four service aces, 44 assists and 74 digs while giving up 98 points, 55 kills, seven aces, 53 assists and 79 digs to the Bearcats.

Three Hawks reached double figure kills, led by Brad Converse's 15.  Alex Overhoff notched 10 kills and led with 21 digs while Nick Diello finished with an impressive .409 attack percent adding 11 kills and two solo blocks.

Stephen Houghton added 16 digs and Austin Chandler was credited with 40 assists in the four-set match.
 
UP NEXT

Hilbert (2-7, 1-2 AMCC) travels next weekend for a quad match at SUNY Potsdam.  The Hawks will face Mount St. Joseph University at 4:00 pm and then hit against the hosts at 6:00 pm February 17.  Hilbert get a taste of their future 2024 AMCC opponent, Carlow University the next morning at 12pm before heading back to WNY.