ST. LOUIS, Mo. — The Wittenberg men's volleyball team opened Midwest Collegiate Volleyball League play with a sweep at Fontbonne on Saturday, taking all three sets by scores of 26-24, 28-26, 25-20. The Tigers have now gone 8-2 in their past 10 games.

The Basics

• Records: Wittenberg (9-7 overall, 1-0 MCVL), Fontbonne (4-12 overall, 1-1 MCVL)
• Venue: Mabee Gymnasium - St. Louis, Mo.

Stat Leaders

• Sophomore Michael Yurk (Indianapolis, Ind./Bishop Chatard) led the Tigers with 13 kills while hitting .333.
• Sophomore Eli Halverson (Hamilton, Ohio/Badin) added 11 kills while hitting .625.
• Senior Tom Supan (Medina, Ohio/Medina) tallied nine kills and a team-high eight digs.
• Senior Andrew Diaz de Padilla (Nipmo, Calif./Central Coast New Tech) finished with a team-best 24 assists. Sophomore Sam Richardson (Akron, Ohio/Walsh Jesuit) added 17 assists.
• Sophomore Moose Harper (Columbus, Ohio/Western Reserve Academy) led Wittenberg with six blocks, including two solo and four assists.
• Cameron Graves led the Griffins with 10 kills.

The Game

• Each of the first two sets were tightly contested and needed extra points to decide.
• Wittenberg scored four of the first five points of the opening set before Fontbonne answered to tie the score at 6-all.
• The Tigers regained a 13-9 lead, but the Griffins once again responded to tie the score at 14-all.
• Wittenberg later went up 24-21 on a kill from junior Aaron Miller (West Chester, Ohio/Lakota West), but the Griffins scored the next three points to tie the score. A kill from Yurk followed by a Fontbonne attack error gave the opening set to the Tigers.
• Wittenberg built a 5-2 lead to open the second set before Fontbonne tied the score at 5-all.
• The Griffins later led 15-11 and 20-16 before the Tigers stormed back. Trailing 21-18, Wittenberg put together a 5-0 run highlighted by kills from Richardson and Yurk to take a 23-21 edge.
• Fontbonne tied the score at 24- and 25-all before taking a 26-25 lead but was unable to close out the set. A kill from Halverson tied the score at 26-all, and Fontbonne attack errors awarded the next two points to the Tigers for the 28-26 victory.
• The Tigers opened the third set with a 5-0 run highlighted by kills from Yurk and Supan and an ace from Halverson.
• Wittenberg continued to lead throughout the set, but Fontbonne made things interesting by cutting the deficit to two, 20-18.
• The Tigers scored the next four points for a 24-18 edge, and, after Fontbonne added two points via kills, clinched the match with a kill from Supan.
• Wittenberg hit .389 in the match with 47 kills and 12 errors, and Fontbonne hit .207 with 36 kills and 17 errors.

Quote - Head coach Nathan Matthews

• "It's always great to start off conference play with a win. Going on the road against a very motivated opponent is always a challenge. I thought we fought hard and came through in some clutch moments. Now we have only one thing on our minds — Beat Wabash!"

Records & Milestones

• Wittenberg is now 4-4 all-time against Fontbonne.
• Third-year head coach Nathan Matthews is now 39-34 all-time at Wittenberg.
• Diaz de Padilla has 425 assists this season and ranks third in program history with 1,035 career assists. His 610 assists from last season rank seventh in program history for a single season.
• Yurk has 200 kills this season and ranks eighth in program history with 393 career kills. He is just four kills shy of breaking into the program's all-time top 10 list for kills in a season.
• Supan has 348 career kills, which is 20 shy of 10th all-time at Wittenberg. His 249 career digs rank ninth in program history in that category.

Up Next

• The Tigers return to action on Sunday at MCVL foe Wabash at 2 p.m.