Greenville (Ill.) College outside hitter Manuel Benitez finished with 28 kills, and his final one sealed a rally for his team for a five-set win over the Lakeland University men's volleyball team Thursday night at the Moose & Dona Woltzen Gymnasium.
The Muskies held leads of 1-0 and 2-1 in the match but couldn't capitalize, falling ultimately by an 18-25, 25-18, 17-25, 25-20, 17-15 score. The Panthers got just their second Midwest Collegiate Volleyball League win of the season, while Lakeland dropped to 10-8 overall and 7-5 in the MCVL.
The Muskies hit a solid percentage for the match with a .282 attack percentage including 64 kills and 22 errors, and also posted 13.5 team blocks.
Casey Bolda (
Sr.-Honolulu, Hawaii) and
Matt Stolz (
Sr.-Wauwatosa, Wis.) recorded 19 and 17 kills, respectively, and
Tim Robbins (
Sr.-Wheaton, Ill.) led the defense at the net with seven block assists.
Lakeland was unable to keep the Panthers (7-15 overall, 2-14 MCVL) from hitting a high percentage as well, though, as the guests attacked at a .245 rate. Benitez took a little time to warm up with a quiet first set but recorded 25 kills over the next four sets, hitting .345 for the match.
The deciding fifth set had several twists and turns, starting with Greenville getting an early lead and going ahead by four points at 11-7 late. The Muskies battled back with three straight points, and then eventually had match points at 14-13 and 15-14. A service error tied it at 15-15 again, though, and Benitez closed it out with two more kills.
Robbins and
Desmond Williams (
So.-Riverside, Calif.) both added nine kills each, with Williams also contributing four block assists.
Addison Mertler (
So.-Boca Raton, Fla.) finished with 55 assists and Bolda and
J.T. Levitt (
So.-Schaumburg, Ill.) paced the team with 12 digs each.
Tanner Smith finished with 49 assists and also added six kills from the setter position for Greenville, which avenged a loss to the Muskies last month and got its first win over Lakeland in three tries. Peter Binder also came off the bench to notch 10 digs.
