Greenville, PA - The Cairn men's volleyball team opened their final weekend of the 2017 season with a match against Thiel College. The Highlanders fell in straight-sets against the Tomcats, 3-0 (25-21, 25-15, 25-12). Juston Wolgemuth, Andy Willits, and Micah Godshall each collected six kills apiece to lead the offense in the match.
 
The Tomcats never trailed in the match, Thiel scored the first point of the opening set and while the Highlanders tied the set at 3-3, 4-4, and 5-5 early in the set the Tomcats were in the driver's seat. Thiel held a slim advantage throughout the entire set.
 
Cairn closed the gap to 18-17 with two-straight points thanks to a kill from Ben Chapman and block by Chapman and Micah Godshall. The Tomcats answered with four-straight points to take a 22-17 lead. Consecutive kills by Godshall and Juston Wolgemuth pulled the Highlanders within three at 22-19, but Thiel won the set by a 25-21 final.
 
The Tomcats continued their strong play into the second set by rattling off the first six points of the game. Cairn used a 6-2 run to close the gap to just two points at 8-6. On the run, Godshall collected a kill with Joffrey Rosa and Jon Simpson collecting aces.
 
After consecutive kills by Wolgemuth and Godshall, the Highlanders trailed 10-9. Thiel responded with an 8-2 run to open their lead to seven at 18-11. Cairn won the next two points with a setting error on Thiel and a block by Chapman, but Thiel went on to win seven of the final nine points to take the set 25-15.
 
Leading 2-0 in the match, the Tomcats turned in their most dominating set of the night with a 25-12 victory in the third to sweep the match 3-0 (25-21, 25-15, 21-12). Thiel used an 8-0 run in the middle of the set to pull away from Cairn. Thiel swung at an impressive .478 clip in the set with 13 kills and two errors.
 
In the match, Joffrey Rosa and Jon Simpson each had two service aces. Simpson also handed out 21 assists in the match. Ben Chapman collected a career-high four blocks while Ryan Ludvik added to his conference-leading dig total with 11 in the match. Ludvik now has 322 digs on the season, 64 more than the next closest in the conference.
 
Cairn will take on the Juniata Eagles tomorrow afternoon in their final game of the season. The match is slated to begin at 7:00 p.m. in Huntingdon, Pa.