Men's Volleyball: Bethany falls in tri-meet with North Park and Illinois Wesleyan

BLOOMINGTON, Ill. - Spring break has officially begun for the students at Bethany College. Instead of lounging on the beach, the men's volleyball team was hard at work in Illinois. The Bison traveled to Illinois Wesleyan to take on the host as well as North Park University in a tri-meet. Bethany fell in three sets to both teams.

THE MATCHUPS

North Park 3, Bethany 0 (25-14, 25-16, 25-19)

Illinois Wesleyan 3, Bethany 0 (25-12, 25-7, 25-11)

HOW IT HAPPENED

• Bethany's first opponent of the day were the North Park Vikings. The Bison were the first ones to score via a James Lucht kill. Both teams exchanged some points before the Vikings made a big 12-3 run to make the score of the first set 18-7. Bethany was able to score a few points late in the set, but not before North Park could close it out 25-14.
• Set two was deja vu for the Bison despite jumping out to a 5-3 lead. North Park went on a similar run to regain a comfortable 14-8 lead. The Bison fought back. They were able to pick up a few extra points in this set off the backs of Tyler Johnson's set leading three kills and Lucht's four points (two from serving aces). The Bison still fell 25-16. 
• Bethany fell 4-1 in the third set before storming back in a big way. Lucht continued to have the hot hand slamming three kills to help tie the match at eight a piece. He also played a big role on defense tallying nine digs.  Neither team was able to establish a rhythm after tying the game until the Vikings strung together a 6-1 showcase to extend their lead 19-13. The Bison continued to battle with McKay Ginez having a solid under the radar performance. He had six kills hitting a team best .556 while also assisting four of his teammates' points. The final set narrowly saw them narrowly missing the 20 point mark before suffering a 25-19 loss in the final set.
• The Bison squared off against the Illinois Wesleyan Titans in the final competition of the tri-match. The Bison dropped three consecutive sets without holding a lead. The first set saw the Bison have a few nice plays at the net as Rylan Trapp was able to block the Titans twice. Ginez was in on a block assist while also collecting two kills of his own. There was an overlaying positive from the Bethany bench during the second set. Isiah Heverling landed his first kill as a Bison. The third set saw the Bison fall in a very similar fashion. They had their best offensive set of the match with seven kills. Johnson met the floor with three of his attempts- good enough to lead the team in set three.

TOP BISON PERFORMERS 

• Alexander Blair was the ultimate setup man. He played a part in 17 kills in game one and totaled 26 assists on the day.
• Lucht was the kill leader for the Bison with 12 total kills. Johnson was another double digit killer with 11.
• Lucht also led the team in digs with 13. McKay had 11.
• McKay hit a team high .556 in the first match.

WHAT'S NEXT?

The Bison will continue their spring break road stretch against Trine. That matchup will be played Tuesday March 5th at 5PM.