ANGOLA, Ind. – The Trine University men's volleyball team celebrated its home opener with a pair of wins on Friday night. Trine (2-1) played the second and third game of the tri-match, taking down Lakeland University in five sets and then sweeping Mount St. Joseph in the nightcap. Lakeland (1-1) defeated Mount St. Joseph (0-2) in the first game.
Trine defeated Lakeland 3-2 in game one, narrowly avoiding a reverse sweep. After claiming sets one and two convincingly, Trine dropped sets three and four 25-22 and 25-23. An 8-1 lead in set five quickly became a 9-8 deficit. The Thunder stayed in the game and took the set 16-14.
John Mikrut led a trio of Thunder with double digit kills with 15,
Karl Both and twin Mikrut brother, Zach had a dozen. Trine broke a back and forth battle wide open in set one with an 8-2 run on kills from both Mikrut's and an ace from
Ty Freeman. Trine led by as many as seven as
Johnson-Kuhao Ho'okano-Pelekai piled on two more swings.
Trine led for most of the second set but flexed some muscle near the midway point and turned a 14-12 lead into a commanding 22-13 advantage. John and
Zach Mikrut each had a kill and
Seth McDonald added a block. John then scored the next three points, teaming up with Both for a block and bookending it with two swings.
The Muskies refused to go away claiming the next two sets in nearly identical fashion. They led set three nearly wire to wire, leading by one or two for most of the set. Trine was able to tie the set at 18 but were never able to regain the lead. Lakeland again broke an 18-all tie in set four and would not give the lead back, alternating points before taking a 24-22 lead and forcing the fifth set.
Trine appeared to have all the answers in set five racing out to an 8-1 lead scoring five of the eight by kill. Lakeland used a timeout and flipped the script, taking a 9-8 lead on the back of some Thunder attacking errors. Trine then turned the tide from the previous set, taking a lead with an ace from
John Mikrut then sealing the win with swings from
Xander Ikusz and John.
Trine hit .345 in the second game, topping Mount St. Joseph in straight sets. The Thunder added eight blocks to go with 41 kills and four aces. Trine blocked 22 attacks on the day.
Trine scored 18 of 25 in the first set via swing. Both and Ho'okano-Pelekai each had five with
Zach Mikrut adding four. The Thunder piled up 15 kills in their first 20 points but the Lions kept pace and pulled within 20-19. It was all Thunder from there as they scored the next five and took set one.
Trine opened up set two with an 11-2 lead Both and Zach each had a pair of kills. Mount St. Joseph would then mount a furious rally to force four set points and pull within two before
John Mikrut ended the rally.
MSJ had their sights set on a fourth set as they took a 15-14 lead. Trine would have none of it, closing the set on an 11-2 run. Ho'okano-Pelekai led the offense with three kills and the defense added a trio of blocks.
Trine is now 2-1 and will travel to Juniata College in Huntingdon, Pa. next weekend for a tri-match.
