GREENVILLE, Ill. — The men's volleyball team concluded their season with two matches on Saturday. They opened with a three-set loss to MCVL tournament qualifier Loras before a three-set sweep of Maranatha Baptist sent the Panthers to the off-season on a high note.
The matches were the final in the men's volleyball coaching career of head coach Phil Davis. Davis relinquished his men's coaching responsibilities after two seasons, but he will stay at Greenville University on the women's volleyball staff as an assistant coach.
In the match against Loras, the Panthers played a tight first set but came up two points short. In set two, Greenville called a timeout at 5-3 to re-group, but Loras responded by closing the set with a 20-14 run to win the set 25-17.
Greenville rallied from 13-8 down in the final set to win nine of the next 11 points and force Loras to take a timeout with Greenville up 17-15. The Panthers held set points at 23-24, 24-25, and 25-26, but Loras took three straight points to win the final set 28-26 and the match.
Kyle Ward led the Panthers with nine kills in the match, and Johnny Milabu recorded a hitting percentage of .400 with six kills and two errors in 10 attempts.
Tanner Smith recorded 27 set assists and tacked on four kills along with a hitting percentage of .800.
The Panthers dominated their second match from start to finish in gaining a three-set win. They won 25-20, 25-19, 25-22.
Greenville steadily improved their hitting percentage in each set. They produced a 13 kill, eight error, and 30 attack effort to hit at .167 in set one.
They went to 14-6-37-.216 in set two and finished at a peak in set three with a 15-4-28-.393 line.
Ward was again the team's leader in kills with 11, and he produced a .200 hitting rate.
Milabu and Peter Binder each ended with seven kills.
Smith organized the Panther offense with 35 set assists and added three service aces.
Nick Corrigan tallied a team-high nine digs, and Isaiah Canales was active at the net with two solo blocks and two block assists.
The men's volleyball team concluded their third season with an overall record of 11-18 (1-8 MCVL). They improved on their 2017 record by one win, and they went .500 in their non-conference schedule with a 10-10 record.
