ANGOLA, Ind.— In the first road match of the season, the Bethel Pilots (3-2) fall short of a reverse sweep over the Trine Thunder (6-4) on the road (18-25, 29-31, 25-22, 25-19, 13-15) on Tuesday night.
After the 7-7 tie in the first set, the Thunder went on an 8-2 run to lead 15-10, with two Pilot service errors and an attack error completing the run. Bethel trailed seven with the set point (24-17) on the line, and a bad set by the Thunder kept the Pilots alive before a service error gave Trine set 1, 25-18.
Christian Woumnga swung a career-high 23 kills on a .436 hitting percentage, while Thomas Dunkley had 20 kills on 44 attempts and eight digs.
Sebastian Rodriguez led with 11 digs, while Ben Ritzema had 10 to round out the defensive effort.
McGwire Eignerauch had a career-high 52 assists and tallied five digs, a kill, a solo block, and assisted a block.
Bethel led most of the second set with a 6-2 run to kick off the set, but the lead was chipped away to 12-11. The close one-point advantage was kept until 24-24 to force extra points that went to 29-29 before a service error, then a Thunder kill took the second 31-29.
TU scored the early points of the game until two attack errors and a solo block by McGwire Eigenrauch tied the set 3-3.
The Pilots gained a three-point advantage 19-16 with Thomas Dunkley’s kill and kept themselves alive by winning the third 25-22.
Bethel kept their stride in the fourth, leading early, and jumped to a 10-4 advantage from Eigenrauch’s service ace before the Thunder timeout. The lead grew to 21-13 but had to settle down Trine after climbing to 23-18.
Carson Moore and Santana Roybal-Benson scored to force a fifth set and battle for the reverse sweep.
The fifth was tied at 12 all into the final stretch of the match, with two crucial attack errors putting the Thunder into match point. Carson Moore found the floor to put the pressure on, but a service error would cost the Pilots the chance to tie and force extra points and fall 15-13 in the fifth and 3-2 for the match.
The Pilots start the Wolverine-Hoosier Athletic Conference schedule in the Goodman Gymnasium on Friday, Feb. 7 at 7 p.m. against the Mount Vernon Nazarene Cougars.