Men’s Volleyball wins opening round against ONU

Whiting, IN - The three-seeded Calumet College Men's Volleyball team hosted the six-seeded Olivet Nazarene in the opening round of the Chicagoland Collegiate Athletic Conference on Tuesday. The Crimson Wave opened up strong in the first set and took an early win, but in the second set, the Tigers got ahead of the Wave to tie it up 1-1. In the third and fourth sets, the Crimson Wave dominated and took back control to win the match 3-1 and secure their spot on Friday in the Semi-Final match against the two-seeded Judson. 

The Crimson Wave kicked off the first set with a quick 5-1 lead and after a few ONU kills and CCSJ errors, the Tigers tied it up 9-9. From there, both teams battled point-for-point until the Crimson Wave took control during Pedro Castillo's five services to lead 19-13. The match ended with two errors from ONU and a kill by Jacob Moen to win the set 25-15. In the second set, the Tigers got the jump on the Wave and took an early 8-3 lead. After a back and forth from both teams, the Crimson Wave tied it up 13-13, but ONU stayed just enough ahead that the Wave couldn't catch up and lost the set 25-21. 

In the third and fourth sets, the Crimson Wave took early leads with long services from Francis Hauze and Gustavo Medina that helped give the Wave their leads. The Crimson Wave had their most kills of the night in the final sets, 12 in the third and 14 in the fourth, with only two errors in each set. In both the final sets of the night, the Wave defeated the Tigers 25-17 to advance in the tournament. 

Leaders for the Crimson Wave were Gianluca Righetto with 9 kills and 1 block and Hauze with 9 kills, 3 service aces, 3 digs, and 4 blocks. Pedro Castillo closely followed with 8 kills, 5 assists, 3 services aces, 3 digs, and 4 blocks. Jacob Moen had 31 assists on the night with 1 kill, 5 digs, and 3 blocks. 

The Crimson Wave will play the two-seeded Judson Eagles on Friday at 5 PM at the Shannon Center at St. Xavier.