Thousand Oaks, Calif. - After opening their play in the Cal-Lu-Fornia Invitational on Friday with a 3-0 win against North Park University of Chicago, the Illinois Tech men's volleyball team had a daunting task in front of them for their final games of the tournament on Saturday: facing 15th-ranked UC Santa Cruz and closing with 7th-ranked and host Cal Lutheran. The Scarlet Hawks came out on the short-end of both matches, falling to the Banana Slugs 3-0 in the opener before dropping the finale to the host Kingsmen 3-0. The Scarlet Hawks fell to 9-12 overall.
The matches against UC Santa Cruz and Cal Lutheran were going to be tough enough on their own, but the task was made more difficult for the Scarlet Hawks when their senior outside hitter and kills leader
Riley Laite was unavailable to play on Saturday. With the outcomes of the matches favoring the opponents, Head Coach
Mike Oswald was able to get some extended playing time for many of his first-year players. One of those,
Raul Matos, finished second on the team in kills for the day with 11. Junior
Paul Henderson and sophomore
Colten Farrell led the Hawks with 12 kills each.
Scarlet Hawk Standouts (combined matches)
Inside The Box Scores
- Riley Norman led UC Santa Cruz with 10 kills while adding 2 service aces and 2 block assists
- UC Santa Cruz finished with a .448 attack percentage vs .114 for Illinois Tech
- Jordan Cooper led Cal Lutheran with 12 kills, 5 service aces while adding 2 total blocks
- Cal Lutheran finished with a .391 attack percentage vs .129 for Illinois Tech
Up Next
The journey does not get easier for the Scarlet Hawks, as they return to Northern Athletics Collegiate Conference (NACC) play on Wednesday, March 19th, when they host conference-leading and 10th-ranked Aurora University at 5:00pm at the Keating Center.
