Griffins Pick Up Dominant Win In Season Opener Against Adrian

SIENA HEIGHTS, Mich.—The Fontbonne University men's volleyball team opened its 2018 campaign in dominant fashion as they defeated Adrian in straight sets (25-18, 25-19, 25-17).

The Griffins (1-0), found plenty of success on both sides of the net. The team accumulated 42 kills, a .312 hitting percentage, 37 assists, 42 digs and 14 block assists.

Individually, Brendon Schwartze, had himself an opener with a match-high 11 kills, a .429 hitting percentage and a career-high 15 digs. TJ Vorva also performed well with nine kills and a .412 hitting percentage, while Josh Farley debuted with seven kills and a .500 hitting percentage.

Jacob Lendy dished out a team-high 22 assists, while on the defensive side of the net, Kyler van Rossum-O'Connell and Zach Rothstein added nine and eight digs respectively. Emir Hadzisalihovic, meanwhile, led with six block assists.

Attack errors were a continuous problem for Adrian (0-3) on the night as its highest hitting percentage was .103. Overall, the Bulldogs accounted for 29 kills and 23 errors for a .060 hitting percentage.

Noah Marcinkowski totaled a team-high 10 kills, while Joseph Campana handed out a match-high 23 assists.

In the first set, the Griffins opened with a 10-5 lead on Farley's kill. The Bulldogs, though responded with a 7-3 run to cut it down to 13-12 on Avery Johnson's kill.

The back-and-forth play continued as the set wore on, but the Griffins still led 20-17 on Hadzisalihovic's kill. From there, the Griffins closed out on a 5-1 run, taking the opening set, 25-18.

It was an impressive first set for Fontbonne, totaling a match-high 15 kills. Adrian, however, was limited to nine kills and eight errors for a mere .026 hitting percentage.

Success for the Griffins carried over into the second. The team jumped out to a 12-6 lead on Stephen Lendy's service ace. They stretched its advantage out to 18-10 on Farley's kill and despite a late rally from the Bulldogs to make it 23-19, Vorva's kill and a Bulldogs attack error secured the 25-19 second set win.

In the third, the two teams went point-for-point early but the Griffins gained some breathing room at 10-7 on Jacob Lendy's service ace. The team maintained its marginal lead at 16-13, then went on a 7-1 run, capped off by Vorva's kill to give them a commanding 23-14 advantage.

That lead proved to be more than enough for the Griffins to go on for the 25-17 win on Vorva's ninth and final kill on the night. Fontbonne closed out the outing with 13 kills in the third and a match-high .407 hitting percentage.

The team jumps back into play tomorrow afternoon against Olivet (3-0). First-serve goes up at 1 p.m., CT.

Fans make sure to stay updated on fontbonnegriffins.com throughout the year for full updates and recaps on the men's volleyball team.