April 21, 2012

In the first round of the MIVA Conference Tournament, the #7 seeded Hawks were defeated by the #2 seeded Lewis University Flyers. Quincy fell in three hard sets to the Flyers.

Lewis came out hot in the first set and the Hawks had trouble keeping up. Quincy's first point came from a service error on the Flyers, and two kills from Steve Battaglia put the Hawks behind by one at 4-3. Joe Ascher and John Pranger chipped in with a couple of kills before the Hawks got some help on more Lewis errors, but a five-point streak for Lewis left the Hawks trailing 16-7. Finally, a service error broke the streak, but the Flyers scored twice more before Joe Sokol found the floor with a kill for Quincy. The Hawks were able to take advantage of a slowing Lewis offense, but the Flyers scored often enough to take game one 25-16.

The Hawks saw a rough second half as they hit -.174 with 10 errors and just six kills in 23 attempts. Lewis jumped out to a quick 4-0 lead before the Hawks were able to get on the board on a kill from Sokol. The Flyers seemed to multiply the score for whenever Quincy scored once, Lewis scored twice until the Hawks trailed 11-6. The Flyers broke away on a six point stretch that consisted of four Quincy errors and, after a service error, the Flyers picked right back up where they left off for five straight points to lead 22-7. Ryan Lehmann broke the second streak on a kill, but Lewis was at match-point just three points later. Quincy dropped the second set 25-10 on a final service error.

The Hawks found the board first in the third set on a kill by Ascher, but another Quincy error allowed the Flyers to take their point back. The Hawks showed improvement in the third set, but errors still haunted a struggling Quincy offense. Quincy hit .083 with nine kills and seven errors in the third set while the Flyers hit .353 with nine kills and three errors. Trailing 22-12, the Hawks were finally able to string together a handful of points to make a run, but an attack error gave Lewis the scoring power and the Flyers took the final set 25-16 on a game-ending service ace.

Overall, the Hawks hit just .031 as a team with 23 total kills while the Flyers hit .421 with 32 kills. Quincy was out-blocked 6.0-1.0, but the Hawks committed just nine service errors compared the Lewis' 11 errors. Battaglia and Pranger led the Hawks as each recorded 7 kills apieace. Pranger and Lehmann combined for Quincy's only block of the game while Andrew Ouano finished with 18 assists. The Hawks finish out their season at 17-15 overall.