Men's Volleyball Suffers Reverse Sweep To Stars

MILWAUKEE (WLCSports.com) – Wisconsin Lutheran College suffered a 3-2 reverse sweep to Dominican in a Northern Athletics Collegiate Conference match on Saturday at Time of Grace Center.

The Warriors (8-11, 4-4 NACC) dropped the five-set match to the Stars, who are receiving votes in the latest AVCA Division III Poll, by scores of 16-25, 25-27, 25-21, 25-16, 15-9.

Senior James Biedenbender (La Crosse, Wis.) started the opening set with a pair of aces while freshman Noah Kern (Brookfield, Wis.) added another ace as WLC jumped out to a 7-1 lead. Wisconsin Lutheran broke the set open at 12-3 highlighted by back-to-back aces from freshman Brady Pichler (Menomonee Falls, Wis.). The Warriors tied their largest lead of nine, 17-8, after a 3-0 spurt. WLC tallied six aces en route to a 25-16 first set win in which it never trailed.

After trading points to start the second set, DU capitalized on three errors to lead 6-3. Dominican led by as many as six, 15-9, in the set before Wisconsin Lutheran rallied to knot the set at 19-19 on a junior Drew Wempner (West Allis, Wis.) ace to cap a 4-0 spurt. The Stars fought off two set points before back-to-back solo blocks by Biedenbender and sophomore Josh Ward (Mukwonago, Wis.), respectively, pushed the Warriors to a 27-25 set two win.

A service ace from Pichler gave WLC an early 5-3 lead in the third set. After trading points in a tightly contested set, DU used an 8-1 run to gain a late 22-17 lead. Wisconsin Lutheran broke three set points behind kills by Pichler and Wempner in addition to a Dominican attack error, but the Stars held off the late comeback, 25-21.

Kern finished off a 3-0 spurt to give the Warriors an early 7-5 lead in the fourth set. Neither team was able to gain separation in the middle of the set before DU used a 10-2 run to close out the set, 25-16. Dominican hit .429 and held WLC to just .074 en route to forcing a decisive fifth set.

The Stars jumped out quickly behind a trio of kills from Ty Geschke and forced a Wisconsin Lutheran timeout as it faced an early 4-0 deficit in the winner-take-all set. A kill by Wempner out of the middle and a DU hitting error trimmed the deficit to 6-3. The Warriors used three consecutive errors to cut Dominican's lead to 13-9, but the Stars scored the final two points to complete the reverse sweep.
 
Pichler led WLC with a team-high 13 kills and four service aces, while Kern added 11 kills and three aces to the offensive attack. Biedenbender collected 35 assists with a pair of service aces. Wisconsin Lutheran tallied six solo blocks and 13 block assists, with Ward and Biedenbender recording six and five blocks, respectively. The Warriors finished with 43 kills for a .180 hitting percentage.

Geschke paced DU (12-8, 8-1 NACC) with a match-high 26 kills on a .426 hitting percentage. Kendall Esparza and Tanner Dahman added 15 and 12 kills, respectively. Landon Kassulke posted a double-double with 54 assists and 14 digs. Dominican tallied 64 kills for a .265 hitting percentage.
 
WLC starts a three-game road trip on Tuesday when it travels to Concordia Wisconsin (4-14, 2-5 NACC) for a conference matchup. First serve is scheduled for 7 p.m. at R. John Buuck Field House. Live coverage links can be found at WLCSports.com.