T&T volleyballer Daynte Stewart and his Indiana Tech team will be back in action Saturday, returning to the Land of Lincoln for a match-up with Judson College in Elgin, Illinois. First serve is set for 3 pm from the Linder Fitness Centre.
The Indiana Tech men's volleyball team will be aiming to rebound from its road defeat, falling to NCAA Division I foe, Quincy University, 3-0 (25-22, 25-17, 25-19) inside Pepsi Arena in the team's first road game of the season in Quincy on Wednesday evening.
Stewart, a national senior and Under-23 indoor and beach volleyball athlete, led the team with 13 kills and a .417 hitting percentage to go along with eight digs and two service aces, while Brandon Jones notched his first career double-double with 11 assists and 11 digs. Mason Milan had five kills and nine digs.
The Warriors matched up well with the Hawks in the opening set, evidenced by six ties, and used a 3-0 run to go up 7-6 early. Quincy responded with a 5-1 run to go ahead 11-8, but Tech came roaring back to make it a 14-13 set following another 3-0 spurt. The hosts, playing their first game of the season, held strong though as they never allowed the Orange and Black to tie the set back up and staved off the upstart Warriors to take the early lead with a 25-23 win.
The two teams were locked in a tight battle over the first 18 serves of the second, with the Warriors holding a slim 10-8 lead that grew to 12-9 thanks to back-to-back kills from Stewart, an Electrical Engineer sophomore. The Hawks responded with a 7-1 run thought to go up 16-13 and force the Warriors to call a timeout. Tech battled back to cut the deficit to 19-17, but the hosts used a 7-0 run to close out the set and take a 2-0 lead in the match.
The Warriors came out firing in the third with a 5-1 run, but Quincy used a 6-0 spurt to take an 11-7 lead and never looked back after that. Tech cut the deficit back down to two points at 12-10 and 18-16, but the Hawks responded to each Tech challenge and used a 5-0 spurt to take a 23-16 lead en route to taking the set and completing the sweep.
