SPRINGFIELD — The Wittenberg men's volleyball team defeated Mount St. Joseph 3-0 in Midwest Collegiate Volleyball League action on Friday night, winning 25-23, 25-19, 25-18. The Tigers extended their current winning streak to six games and remained unbeaten in conference play.

The Basics

• Records: Wittenberg (16-8 overall, 7-0 MCVL), Mount St. Joseph (5-14 overall, 1-6 MCVL)
• Venue: Pam Evans Smith Arena - Springfield, Ohio
• Wittenberg won 3-0 at Mount St. Joseph 3-0 in a non-conference game earlier this season on Feb. 23.
• The Tigers have clinched a spot in the four-team MCVL Tournament, which is scheduled for April 12-13, and currently lead the conference standings by one game over Baldwin Wallace while holding the head-to-head tiebreaker.

Stat Leaders

• Freshman Reese Monnin (Xenia, Ohio/Carroll) led the Tigers with nine kills while hitting .692 and adding three block assists.
• Sophomore Eli Halverson (Hamilton, Ohio/Badin) tallied eight kills and hit .333 to go with five digs.
• Sophomore Michael Yurk (Indianapolis, Ind./Bishop Chatard) posted seven kills, eight digs and two service aces.
• Senior Tom Supan (Medina, Ohio/Medina) recorded five kills and a team-high 17 digs to go with two aces.
• Sophomore Sam Richardson (Akron, Ohio/Walsh Jesuit) finished with a team-best 22 assists, and senior Andrew Diaz de Padilla (Nipmo, Calif./Central Coast New Tech) added 15 assists.
• Jude Lewis led Mount St. Joseph with eight kills.

The Game

• The opening set was tightly contested, featuring 17 tie scores. The teams played to a 23-all tie before the Tigers closed out the set with two straight points via a kill from senior Kurt Klamfoth (Gahanna, Ohio/Lincoln) and a Lion attack error for the 25-23 victory.
• Wittenberg jumped out to a 10-6 lead in the second set, but MSJ came back to tie the score at 11-all.
• The Tigers responded with a 12-5 run for a 23-16 edge. That stretch included three kills from Monnin, two kills from Halverson, one kill each from Yurk, Klamfoth and sophomore Trajan Kress (Cincinnati, Ohio/Sycamore) and an ace from Supan.
• MSJ scored three of the next four points, but Wittenberg closed out the 25-19 victory with a kill from Klamfoth.
• Leading 14-12 in the third set, the Tigers scored four straight points on a kill from Halverson and three MSJ attack errors for an 18-12 edge en route to the match-clinching 25-18 victory capped by a kill from sophomore Greg Efaw (Hilliard, Ohio/Davidson) and ace from Richardson.
• Wittenberg hit .234 in the match with 38 kills and 13 errors, while MSJ hit .053 with 27 kills and 21 errors.

Quote - Head coach Nathan Matthews

• "It was great to have the team back to full strength! I think we had to shake off a little rust, and MSJ battled very hard. Our middles had another huge match, which is great because it makes our offense almost impossible to stop. Next up, we have a huge conference rival in The Pam on Friday. We need Tiger Nation there!"

Records & Milestones

• Third-year head coach Nathan Matthews is now 46-35 all-time at Wittenberg.
• Wittenberg is now 7-7 all-time against Mount St. Joseph.
• Diaz de Padilla has 519 assists this season and ranks third in program history with 1,129 career assists. His 610 assists from last season rank seventh in program history for a single season.
• Yurk has 284 kills this season and ranks sixth in program history with 477 career kills. He currently ranks fourth in program history for single-season kills.
• Supan has 400 career kills, which ranks ninth all-time at Wittenberg. His 317 career digs rank sixth in program history in that category.

Up Next

• The Tigers return to action on Friday, April 5, hosting MCVL foe Trine at 7 p.m. in their penultimate game of the regular season.