V-Hawks Rally Falls Short in Season Opener

LA CROSSE, Wis. – The Viterbo University Men's Volleyball team lost their first game of the 2023 season, a home conference opener to St. Ambrose University (Iowa.), 2-3 (18-25, 24-26, 25-14, 25-16, 8-18) on Thursday night. The V-Hawks are now 0-1 (0-1 CCAC), while the Fighting Bees start 1-0 (1-0 CCAC).

St. Ambrose started the match hot, getting up 0- quickly following back-to-back kills by Mikolaj Zielonka. Jacob Nonn and Joe Todd would each record kills to put the V-Hawks on the board, along with multiple errors by the Bees to bring the score to 7-10. The teams would trade runs, with Dan Rice's kills extending the St. Ambrose lead to 18-10, but aces from Todd and Daxton Marschall helped Viterbo fight back to 17-20. The Bees would have the final run, taking the opening set 18-25.

While VU would get up 8-4 on another Todd ace, blocks from Zielonka, and Anthony Anderson helped bring them back to take the 11-9 lead. Kou Her tied the game at 14-14 with an ace, and while Dane Kerman and Nonn kept the game close with their kills, SAU would take a 19-24 lead. The Bees' errors tied the game at 24-24, but the V-Hawk rally stopped there and St. Ambrose won the set 24-26.er

The third set started very close, with five ties by the time the score reached 7-7, but a Jaden Wiest ace and a Juan Banda-Alex Kratzenstein block helped the V-Hawks to start to pull away. Nonn started a run that saw a Banda kill, a Marschall ace, and a Wiest-Kratzenstein block that put the V-Hawks up 24-13. The run was only interrupted for a single point before a Bee's service error ended the set 25-14.

The momentum continued for the V-Hawks in the fourth, with a Dane Kerman kill and Todd ace giving them an early 7-3 lead. SAU kept it close until Todd's kill at 13-9 kicked off a 9-1 run that featured three kills from Nonn and one from Justin Kratzenstein. The Bee's rally attempt would not even get close, as Banda and A. Kratzenstein would each post a solo block to end the set.

Weist would earn a kill to help put Viterbo up 4-3 in the final set, but it would be the V-Hawk's final lead. St. Ambrose took all the momentum as Rice, Jon Guch, and Zielonka led the Bee's charge, and VU would manage only one more kill, losing the fifth set 8-15.

Nonn led all players with 18 kills, and Kerkman, A. Kratzenstein, and and Banda each had five. Wiest had a team-high 32 assists , and Banda and Todd each reached double-digit digs, 12 and 10 respectively. A. Kratzenstein also had a team high 5 blocks.

Zielonka had a team-high 13 kills, Anderson led all players with 35 assists, Jesse Moreno had 11 digs, and Nick Fox posted a game-high six blocks.

Vitero returns to action on Saturday, January 28 as they host a triangle with Morningside University (Iowa), and Lakeland University, starting at 10:30 AM.