Men’s volleyball team falls to Wittenberg in three sets

OLIVET, Mich. – The Olivet College men's volleyball team closed out the home portion of its 2023 schedule with a three-set loss to Midwest Collegiate Volleyball League (MCVL) rival Wittenberg (Ohio) University today at the Cutler Event Center.

• Final Score: Wittenberg defeated Olivet 25-16, 25-21, 25-15
• Location: Cutler Event Center; Olivet, Michigan
• Records: Olivet 8-12 overall, 1-4 MCVL; Wittenberg 15-9 overall, 4-1 MCVL

• The Tigers never trailed in the first set, with the nine-point margin at the end being their largest lead.
• The two schools exchanged the first eight points, resulting in four tied scores. Wittenberg took the largest lead for either team at 6-4 before the Comets fought back to level the score at 7-7 and 8-8. The Tigers took advantage of three Olivet attack errors for an 11-8 lead. The Comets chipped away at their deficit and eventually evened the score at 12-12 and 13-13. Wittenberg put the next two points on the scoreboard and did not give up the lead for the rest of the set.
• Olivet scored the first two points of the third set. The Tigers responded with an 8-0 run, including five kills and a service ace. The Comets were not able to recover from the deficit.

• Sophomore Ethan Valente recorded eight of the 27 Olivet kills.
• Junior Kai Hartman was next with seven kills.
• Junior Everett Haynes tallied 22 set assists.
• Junior Deontay Thomas topped the team with seven digs.

• Before the match, Olivet recognized senior Dakota Galeazzi who was playing in his final match. He ranks second all-time at Olivet with 425 digs.
• Haynes had five digs in today's match to break the single-season record with 171. The previous record was 170 by Tanner Gardenour in 2019. Haynes' 22 assists moves him 100 shy of becoming the all-time leader. He has 1,410 career assists, with the record being 1,510 by Aaron Giorgi from 2017-20.

• Eli Halverson and Trajan Kress each slammed down eight of the 36 Wittenberg kills.
• Dominic Melchiorre snagged seven kills, while recording a .429 attack percentage.
• Kurt Klamfoth registered eight blocks (two solo and six assisted).
• Andrew Diaz de Padilla and Sam Richardson collected 17 and 15 set assists, respectively.
• Halverson, Dominic Smith and Tim Supan had five digs apiece.

• Olivet is off until next Friday, March 31, when it travels to play Adrian College. First serve from the Merillat Sports & Fitness Center is slated for 7 p.m.