The Hiram Terriers men’s volleyball team made their last stand in the Presidents’ Athletic Conference semifinal round and were swept 25-18, 25-11, 25-8 by top seeded Thiel College last Thursday evening at Beeghly Gymnasium’s Maenpa Court in Greenville, PA.
“We knew going in that it was going to be a tough challenge,” said Coach Kyle Martini. “When you face a team like that that won the prior year and brought back the whole team, it was going to be tough and we knew that going in but credit to the guys, I thought they did a decent job, trying to do things that we had talked about. In the end, it just was not our night.”
It marked the second consecutive season that the Terriers (9-14, 4-8) advanced to the semifinal round of the PAC tournament since joining the league last year but their bid for a spot in the National Collegiate Athletic Association Division III tournament fell short at the hands of the reigning champion Thiel, who once again repeated as PAC champions this year.
On Thursday, Hiram trailed the Tomcats at the beginning of the first set by a 10-7 margin and Thiel pulled away with a 4-0 run, pushing the lead to 14-7 and maintained the lead throughout the set to win 25-18.
According to the first-year coach, the short scoring burst from Thiel swung the momentum in its favor.
“When you get down like that and they are able to serve four points in a row, it is tough to come back no matter who you are playing, especially a team like that,” he added.
The Tomcats used another big run at the start of the second set to assume control, fueled by a dominant service game by sophomore outside hitter Ezra Oesterling, who recorded three aces to key a 7-0 run to take a 10-3 advantage.
Martini acknowledged that the Tomcats assumed control in the match with a strong service game, and it propelled them to win the second set 25-11.
Thiel carried momentum into the third set, taking a 13-4 lead in the beginning of the set and never relinquished control, outscoring the Terriers 12-4 to win 25-8, ending the Terriers’ season.
Martini said that in addition to battling against a well-balanced Thiel offense, Hiram was also battling itself, as it was plagued with errors, recording 12 in the match, which had been a recurring theme for the team this year.
“We have been doing that a lot all season, not just playing the guys on the other side of the floor but trying to battle against ourselves,” he noted. “Against Thiel we started to revert back to those ways, which ultimately is what led to that result.”
While the Terriers’ season once again ended in the semifinal, Martini credited Hiram for showing grit at the end of the regular season, snapping a nine-game losing streak and winning two of its final three league matches to secure the fifth seed after flirting with falling out of tournament contention for most of the season.
The Terriers demonstrated their resiliency by upsetting fourth-seeded Grove City 3-2 in the first round on April 7, only three days removed from losing 3-1 against the Wolverines in the regular season finale on April 4.
“It would have been easy, especially after that game against Thiel on March 28, to pack it up and stay defeated. At that time we had lost nine in a row and to bounce back like they did and take three of the next four, that was huge. So all of the credit to those guys for keeping the right mentality and not beating up on themselves or each other or things like that,” said Martini.
Hiram graduates four seniors this year but returns six players who logged meaningful minutes so it will be aided by some continuity in its quest to reach the top of the PAC next season and finally clear the semifinal hurdle after two consecutive seasons of losing in the Final Four.
Martini said that the team will have a lot of motivation to become the kings of the PAC, as they have yet to make their mark on the league.
“It was always going to be a challenge from the get-go but between the returnees and some of the first years, I thought that they did a good job of getting there and upholding the standard. From there it is time to make the jump,” he said.
