MVC Defeats UHSP in Straight Sets

The Eutectic men's volleyball team travelled to Marshall, Mo., on Tuesday to return a home-and-home Heart of America Athletic Conference (HEART) match with Missouri Valley College (18-4, 11-4 HEART). After falling 3-1 to the MVC Vikings in St. Louis last month, the Eutectics were looking for an upset win over the Viking team, who are currently ranked No. 12 in the NAIA. Despite their efforts, the Eutectics fell 25-19, 25-14, 25-15 to Missouri Valley in Tuesday night's match.

The Viking attackers hit at 41.7% on the night, as the Eutectics struggled with consistency, along with eight MVC solo blocks, averaging 13.4%.

Cameron Werner started off the match with some strong blocking, picking up two solo blocks in the first five points as the Eutectics took a 5-1 lead. But, the Viking hitters then got their act together, picking up four points in a row to tie the set at 5-5. Back-to-back kills from MVC's Luca Hasse gave the Vikings a two-point lead (13-11) that they would add to with another four points in a row to get to 20-15. A kill by Dickson Colado, assisted by Cole Cwiklowski, stopped the Viking run. But, the Eutectics were not able to make any headway, trading points with the home team until they reached 25 to UHSP's 19.

In Set 2, the Eutectics had their own scoring run early on, winning five points in a row off two kills by Grant Hoover, a block by Marcus Parker, and two MVC errors to take a 7-4 lead. After three kills by MVC's Andrey Bastos (from setter Lucas Rodrigues), the home team took a 10-9 lead, then had their own five-point rally to go up 17-11. Davi Azevedo served up two aces in between a Bastos kill and a Rodrigues block to make it 23-13. A kill by Hoover, from Cwiklowski, broke up the Viking run, but MVC won the final two points to win the set 24-14.

Again, the score was close to start the third set. An MVC kill, block, and ace gave them a three-point lead (6-3) the Euts would try to chase down with two Hoover kills, set up by Cwiklowski. The Purple and Gold came within one point at 8-7 and 11-10, but couldn't quite catch the Vikings, who pounded down another three kills to go up 14-10, then strung together another five points at 18-14 to take a 23-14 lead. Cwiklowski found Hoover once more for UHSP's 15^th point, but, again the Vikings won the last two to win the set 25-15 and clinch the straight-set victory.

Dickson Colado and Grant Hoover finished with 10 kills apiece, as Cole Cwiklowski set up 29 assists. Xavier Gamayo collected seven digs, while Cameron Werner picked up four blocks for the Eutectics.

Andrey Bastos recorded 10 kills on 16 attempts with three errors to finish at 43.8% hitting. Lucas Rodrigues had 35 assists.

The Eutectics, now 17-12 overall and 5-10 in the HEART, will return two Conference matches in Iowa this weekend. On Friday, UHSP looks to sweep the home-and-home series with Clarke University (6-20, 3-13 HEART) in Dubuque at 7 p.m. before heading to Cedar Rapids for another matchup with Mount Mercy University (23-6, 10-6 HEART) on Saturday at 2 p.m.