CHICAGO, Illin. — No. 13 California Lutheran University men's volleyball continued their road trip with two decisive victories. The Kingsmen defeated Marian (Wisc.) 3-1 and North Park 3-1 to improve their season record to 14-8.
The first match of the day saw setter Taylor Marks control both the offensive and defensive sides of the ball.
On offense, Marks racked up 36 assists, distributing the ball well to middle hitters Borys Horiuk and Dylan Schreibfeder who each had a .417 hitting percentage. This effective middle attack helped open up the space for outside hitter Sean Fitzpatrick who led the Kingsmen with 14 kills. Connor Hinthorn was also able to take advantage with 5 kills and a .833 hitting percentage.
Fitzpatrick and libero Eli Moore had 8 digs a piece while Horiuk and Schreibfeder each had 4 blocks.
The Kingsmen took the first set 25-17, lost the second 21-25, won the third 25-21, and then put an exclamation point on the match with a 25-11 match sealing win in the fourth.
The second matchup of the day against North Park was another display of balanced offense from the Kingsmen.
Fitzpatrick led the way with 16 kills. Borys Horiuk continued to score effectively from the middle with 10 kills and a very impressive .714 hitting percentage. Ben Weber was also scoring well from the outside with 9 kills on a hitting percentage of .500.
Marks improved on his total from the earlier match as he dished out 54 assists.
In the back row Moore picked up 17 digs and Hinthorn had 14 of his own to help frustrate the Marian offense.
Horiuk made his presence felt on defense as well with 6 block assists while Eric Chabon had 3 block assists to help establish control of the net.
The Kingsmen ran away with the first set 25-15. A tight 25-23 second set and an even tighter 24-26 loss in the third gave Marian hope. Cal Lutheran ended that with a 25-15 fourth set win that was never in doubt.
The Kingsmen continue their Illinois road trip on Friday against Illinois Tech at 5:00pm PST.
Box Score: CLU 3; MU 1, CLU 3; NPU 1
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Release by Steven Lohn, Assistant Sports Information Director
