SPRINGFIELD — The Wittenberg men's volleyball team fell 3-0 in a tough battle with No. 8 Loras on Friday night. The Duhawks won 25-21, 25-20, 25-17.

The Basics

• Records: Wittenberg (6-6 overall), Loras (8-0 overall)
• Venue: Pam Evans Smith Arena - Springfield, Ohio

Stat Leaders

• Sophomore Eli Halverson (Hamilton, Ohio/Badin) led Wittenberg with 11 kills on the night, while sophomore Michael Yurk (Indianapolis, Ind./Bishop Chatard) added eight kills.
• Senior Andrew Diaz de Padilla (Nipmo, Calif./Central Coast New Tech) tallied a team-best 29 assists.
• Halverson led the team with 10 digs to go with eight from Yurk.
• Dorian Fiorenza led Loras with nine kills.

The Game

• Wittenberg jumped out to leads of 5-1 and 14-8 in the opening set and continued to lead until Loras tied the score at 16-all.
• The Duhawks then took a 17-16 edge and didn't surrender the lead for the remainder of the set en route to the 25-21 victory. After trailing 22-19, the Tigers got back within one, 22-21, but Loras scored the next three points.
• The Tigers got out to another strong start in the second set and led 8-6, but Loras answered with a 12-4 run for an 18-12 lead and went on to win 25-20.
• The Duhawks out together a strong third set to close out the match, racing out to a 20-13 lead en route to the 25-17 victory.
• Wittenberg finished with 31 total kills and hit .104, while Loras had 29 kills and hit .234.

Quote - Head coach Nathan Matthews

• "Loras is undefeated, and you probably could make an argument that they should be ranked even higher than No. 8. We definitely played at a really high level at moments tonight, but we weren't able to execute well enough to make them uncomfortable and force them into some errors. But we have an opportunity to play two really good teams tomorrow, so we have to shake this off and get refocused."

Records & Milestones

• Wittenberg is now 1-3 all-time against Loras.
• Third-year head coach Nathan Matthews is now 36-33 all-time at Wittenberg.
• The Duhawks have won all but one of their matches by a 3-0 score this season.
• Diaz de Padilla has 304 assists this season and ranks third in program history with 914 career assists. His 610 assists from last season rank seventh in program history for a single season.
• Yurk has 153 kills this season and ranks 10th in program history with 346 career kills. He is 51 kills shy of breaking into the program's all-time top 10 list for kills in a season.
• Senior Tom Supan (Medina, Ohio/Medina) has 316 career kills as he seeks to break into the program's all-time top 10 list in that category. His 217 career digs ranks 10th in program history in that category.

Up Next

• The Tigers return to action on Saturday to face Hiram and Wabash at 12 p.m. and 4 p.m., respectively, in a tri-match at the Greater Columbus Convention Center.