MISHAWAKA, Ind. — The Bethel Pilots (12-11, 6-5) defeated the Siena Heights Saints (10-10, 5-7) in the Goodman Gymnasium Friday night, surviving two extra point sets in a 3-1 victory.
Thomas Dunkley had a big night with a team-leading 16 kills and a .265 hitting percentage, three aces, and Pablo Tello, who ended the night with 15 kills for the Pilots offense. Santana Royball-Benson led with eight blocks, and Maik Herbst had a team-leading eight digs and 27 assists.
It was a narrow affair out of the gate in the opening set until Siena Heights’ timeout at 12-9, where the Pilots quietly climbed to a 15-11 advantage and maintained distance until 19-13, where the Saints hit a 6-0 run to tie the set 19-19.
The set tied two more times at 20 all and 21 all before two Saints errors gave BU a two-point advantage, disrupted by a Daniel Rua kill, before putting away the first set 25-22.
The Pilots led the second set early with an 11-4 run and maintained the advantage until the Saints began to climb back with a 6-0 run to make it 17-13 and cause Bethel to call a timeout. The Saints chipped away until tying the set 22-22, where the Pilots called their second timeout.
The set went to extra points that tied six times before the Saints took advantage of a Pilot service error and two attack errors and took the second set 33-31.
Bethel was down in the third set 16-12 before a Pilot timeout was called and hung around by four points until 21-17, where BU hit four unanswered points to climb back within one point 21-20. A Saints attack error tied the set 24-24 and forced extra points where, a SHU service error, followed by a kill by Pablo Tello, gave Bethel set three 26-24 and took the 2-1 set lead.
In the fourth set, Bethel held onto a three-point lead going into the final points, and the Pilots took the fourth set 25-21 and the match 3-1.
The Pilots host the Lourdes Graywolves on Saturday, March 29, in the Goodman Gymnasium at 7 p.m. with the Bethel Sports Network pregame show starting at 6:40 p.m. with the voice of the Pilots Paul Condry.