Men's Volleyball Suffers Tough Five-Set Loss Against Adrian

ADRIAN, Mich.—The Fontbonne University men's volleyball team dropped its first MCVL outing on the year against Adrian on Saturday in five sets.

Final: Adrian 3, Fontbonne 2 (23-25, 25-19, 29-27, 25-27, 15-11)

Location: Adrian, Mich.

Records: Adrian (10-9; 3-0 MCVL), Fontbonne (3-11; 1-1 MCVL)

How It Happened

In the first set, the Bulldogs opened with an 11-5 lead on Joseph Campana's kill. The Griffins chipped away at the deficit as the set wore on and eventually took a 19-18 lead on a Bulldogs attack error.

The two teams went point-for-point but it was the Bulldogs owning a 23-22 lead on Noah Marcinkowski's kill. However, the Griffins closed out on a 3-0 run to secure the opening 25-23 victory.

In the second set, a 4-0 run from the Bulldogs after being down 10-9 had them out in front 13-10 on Marcinkowski's kill. The team never relinquished its lead the rest of the way as they held on for the 25-19 win.

In the third, the two teams answered each other throughout the set but Fontbonne owned a 20-18 lead on a block assist from Nate Paasch and Zach Herran. On three separate occasions later, the Griffins were one point away from winning the set, however, the Bulldogs spoiled the win after tying it up with Fontbonne at 27-27 on another Marcinkowski kill.

From there, the Bulldogs collected the final two points on a Fontbonne ball handling error and a block assist from Tedrick Gula and Lucas Rusnak for the 29-27 win.

In the fourth, after being tied 14-14, the Griffins went on a 3-90 run as kills from Braden Woolsey, Kyler van Rossum-O'Connell, and Cameron Graves gave Fontbonne the 17-14 lead.

Out of an Adrian timeout, the two teams battled back-and-forth and eventually met-up, 25-25, on Gula's kill for Adrian. The Griffins, though forced a fifth and final set on back-to-back kills from Graves for the 27-25 win.

In the finale, the Griffins led early with a 7-6 lead on an Adrian service error. From there, the Bulldogs responded with a 6-0 run to lead 13-7 on Gula's kill.

Fontbonne tried a late rally with Braden Woolsey's kill narrowing the lead down to 14-11, however, the Bulldogs finished it off on Marcinkowski's kill for the 15-11 set and match win.

Inside The Numbers

• The Griffins set new season-highs in kills (58) and assists (58).
• Defensively, the team came away with 56 digs and 12 total blocks.
• Adrian finished with 69 kills and a .215 hitting percentage.
• At the net, the Bulldogs collected 18 block assists.

Fontbonne Leaders

• Cameron Graves led with a career-high 22 kills and a .200 hitting percentage.
• Braden Woolsey added 12 kills and a .364 hitting percentage.
• Nate Paasch set a new career-high with nine kills, to go along with his 13 digs and four block assists.
• Lee Kruetzmann and Zach Herran contributed eight and six kills, respectively.
• Setter Kyler van Rossum-O'Connell handed out a career-high 54 assists.
• Defensively, Zach Rothstein earned a team-high 15 digs.

Adrian Leaders

• The duo of Marcinkowski and Gula were the story for the Bulldogs.
• Marcinkowski finished with match-highs in kills (25) and digs (18).
• Gula added 25 kills and 14 block assists.
• Joseph Campana finished with a match-high 61 assists.

Up Next

The Griffins will return to action in March for a six-game home stretch and first up is Mount Union on March 6^th. First-service at 7 p.m.

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

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