Penn State Altoona Box D'Youville Box
HAMBURG, NY – Hilbert College dropped two non-conference matches to Penn State Altoona and D’Youville College in a volleyball tri-match the Hawks hosted on February 3. D’Youville beat Altoona in the middle match to go 2-0 and improve to 7-1. Hilbert (2-5) completed the day with 1 more kill and 6 more assists than their opponents, but the Hawks gave up 27 points in service errors.
Adam Weaver was credited with 36 kills and 27 digs while Ryan Ratajczak led with 29 digs and David Mellerski added 64 assists in Hilbert’s 7-set day.
Penn State Altoona jumped on Hilbert early and maintained their pace in the 25-20,25-16,21-25,25-20 road win. Weaver (26) and Fred Sickau (10) reached for double-digit kills for Hilbert. Mellerski passed for 40 set assists and three Hawks reached for 10 or more digs. Ratajczak lead with 17, Weaver followed right behind with 16 and Korey Schwab added 10. Altoona’s Josh Settle (3 solo blocks) earned 12 kills many of the passes coming from Branden McGarvey (33 assists).
D’Youville started slowly but took control and rolled to a 25-22,25-19,25-21 victory over Altoona (2-7).
In the night cap game, the Spartans continued their pace and grabbed the first two sets (25-18, 25-14) before Hilbert gave them a battle. Scott Ross {in photo} stepped back on the floor in the third set and created life for the Hawks. D’Youville out-lasted Hilbert 30-28 in the final set. Ross finished with .375 hitting percentage (5 kills), a service ace and one block. Sickau chipped in 8 kills while Weaver had 10 kills. Ratajczak got to 12 digs and Mellerski’s 24 assists ran the offense. D’Youville finished with a .245 hitting match and a very balanced attack as six Spartans had two or more kills and no one reaching for more than 9.
The Hawks (2-5) will use this next week to prepare for their United Volleyball Conference cross-over weekend matches which will be played at Medaille College February 9th and 10th. Hilbert faced NYU at 9 am and then must wait until 3 pm to square off against Bard College. Then, on Sunday, the Hawks will play Vassar at 1pm to complete the weekend.