Men's volleyball with two tough losses in Ohio

Cinncinnati, Ohio - Fontbonne men's volleyball gave No. 11-ranked Mount St. Joseph University a run for their money this past weekend, but fell in three sets. The Griffins then lost in a five-set cooker to Wittenberg University.

MSJ

Fontbonne led 18-17 when they went scored three straight points to lead 21-17. The Griffins then secured a 24-20 lead before MSJ earned four consecutive points to tie the game. After a tied 25-25 contest, the Lions earned their first lead of the set as they scored two points to close out the set.

MSJ jumped out to an 11-7 advantage until Fontbonne pulled within one 14-13. MSJ went ahead 21-17 before Fontbonne closed the gap but ran out of room as the Lions won 25-23.

In the third set, Fontbonne earned a 10-8 lead but then with the game tied 12-12, MSJ went ahead 15-12 and held on, closing out the win with three straight points.

Fontbonne libero Jimmy Stika recorded 11 digs in the loss while TJ Vorva and Brendon Schwartze each tallied six kills. Vorva led the team with a .357 hitting percentage against their ranked opponents. Freshman Emir Hadzisalihovic totaled six block assists at the net, a career-high for a game, but is one short of his total blocks in a game.

Wittenberg

Fontbonne led 14-12 in the opening set before the Tigers recorded a 7-1 run to lead 19-15 before going on to win 25-21. The Griffins suffered a second set loss by a score of 23-25 after leading 18-14. Fontbonne fought to send the game into extra sets after leading 16-11 in the third set. The teams would tie at 17,18,19,20 and 21 before Fontbonne led 24-2. Wittenberg didn't back down but the Griffins eventually won 27-25.

Fontbonne led the entire fourth set, eventually winning 25-22 to enter their third five-set match of the year. The Tigers retaliated with a 15-11 victory, but not before Schwartze recorded a season-high 17 kills on a .353 hitting percentage. Stika and Stephen Lendy each recorded 15 digs in the loss with setter Jacob Lendy totalling 10 digs with 44 assists. Hadzisalihovic was part of five blocks to go with his nine kills and .261 hitting percentage. Stephen Lendy's 12 kills was second-most for the Griffins.

Schwartze totaled 23 kills on the weekend, hitting .236. Stephen Lendy recorded 17 kills, 21 digs and five service aces while Vorva recorded 14 kills with a .243 hitting percentage. Jacob Lendy's weekend consisted of 60 assists and 16 digs while senior Stika recorded 26 digs. Stika's 15 digs in his second game is a season-high for the senior. Hadzisalihovic totaled 11 block assists to lead the Griffins at the net, which consisted of four in the first set against MSJ.

Jacob Lendy needed just five assists to become Fontbonne's all-time career assists leader. After this weekend, Lendy has accumulated 1,143 career assists with seven more games left for his sophomore season with plenty of time to significantly increase the record.

Fontbonne is on the road next week with five games on the East Coast. Live links are available on our schedule page.