SOUTHFIELD--Redshirt junior
Brendon Down smashed a match-high 18 kills while hitting .469, and freshman
Gustavo Machado added nine kills (.500), as Lawrence Tech clinched a postseason berth to the Wolverine-Hoosier Athletic Conference Men's Volleyball Tournament with a 25-13, 27-25, 25-9 victory over visiting Goshen (Indiana) on Senior Day at the Don Ridler Field House on Saturday.
The Blue Devils, who posted a .368 attack percentage and held the Maple Leafs to just .036, have won seven matches in a row to end the regular season and gain the No. 5 seed in order to play at fourth-seeded Mount Vernon Nazarene in the WHAC Quarterfinals next week.
Prior to the match, LTU graduate students
Gustavo Heidrich and
Matheus Andrade were honored in a Senior Day ceremony. The duo have combined for nearly 2,000 digs, six NAIA defensive player of the week honors, two All-America citations and eight WHAC defender of the week awards. Andrade led all student-athletes this afternoon with 13 digs.
Sophomore
Nathaniel Brownlee directed the Blue Devils' offense with a match-best 31 assists plus six digs. Junior
JT McCarthy (6 kills, .667) turned aside a match-best five total blocks.
Lawrence Tech got off to a hot start to take the opening set by 12 points after connecting on 38.5 percent on its kill attempts while holding the Leafs to minus-.097.
The two teams battled in the second set with each saving at least a set point. With the score tied at 9, the teams exchanged four-point runs before the visitors eventually went up 18-14. Lawrence Tech fought back to tie it 19-19 and then forged ahead 24-23 on a kill by Down. Then two straight kills by the Leafs made it 25-24. The Blue Devils prevailed with the next three points on a Leaf attack error, a freshman
Mario Cid ace and another kill from Down.
In the third set, LTU never trailed in jumping out to leads of 5-1, 13-3 and 20-5 to seal the victory. The Blue Devils outhit the Leafs .476 to minus-.071 in the frame.
Hasan Hadzic led Goshen with 13 kills, Avery Laforce made 12 assists, and Ishmail Bangura chipped in six kills, six digs and three total blocks.
Lawrence Tech will travel to Mount Vernon, Ohio, on Tuesday to face the Cougars in the conference quarterfinals, with a start time to be announced.
