Saint Mary-of-the-Woods men's volleyball did not get the final result it would have liked in its first game in school history, falling 3-0 (25-16, 25-21, 25-18) to Cornerstone University in a Wolverine-Hoosier Athletic Conference battle.
But the Pomeroys can hold their heads high after a solid performance against a team picked sixth in the WHAC.
"We played hard. Even when we were struggling to make plays or stop the other team, the heart, intensity never gave up," coach Ian Harris said. "That's a really good team we played, a team that's used to going through wars; we've never done any of that. We led and led big in two of the sets. We have to learn how to finish. We have to learn how to sustain it. That will all come in time."
SMWC built a slight lead in the opening set as Mark Zmodjzin delivered his fourth kill to make it 13-10. Cornerstone answered with six of the next seven points to take a 16-14 lead. Zmojdzin fifth kill of the set cut the Pomeroys' deficit to one, but the Eagles ran off five straight points and went on to a 25-16 win in the first set.
The Pomeroys jumped out to a 5-0 lead in the second set and led 11-4 following another kill by Zmojdzin off the assist by Jacob Wisniewski. Cornerstone made consecutive attack errors in the middle of the set as the Pomeroys maintained an 18-12 advantage. A 7-0 run by the Eagles followed as Andrew Galanes had three kills during the spurt.
One more Zmojdzin, off the assist from Ethan Martins, evened the score at 20. SMWC took a brief 21-20 lead before two errors by SMWC, a kill by Galanes and an ace by Cade Meza made it 24-21. The set ended on a Zmojdzin attack error.
Cornerstone didn't allow SMWC to take an early advantage in the third, jumping out to a 9-6 lead. SMWC pulled even at 13-13 on a kill by Zmojdzin. Trailing just 17-16, SMWC couldn't capitalize on a Cornerstone service error. Zmojdzin had one of the Pomeroys' 15 service errors and a kill by Galanes put the Eagles ahead 20-16.
Cornerstone was able to finish out the match on a kill by Max Hernandez.
Zmojdzin led the way with 14 kills for the offense. Ethan had a match-high 23 assists and Zon Mendiola led the Pomeroys with 15 digs.
"Mark did fantastic. He's got to have help. It was too much of a one-man show tonight," Harris said. "Zon, with 15 digs, was incredible. I told him, 'if you average 5 digs per set, you'll be top five in the nation.'
"We can't rely on one or two guys. We'll come back tomorrow and we'll do it tomorrow. We're going to learn from this. We'll make adjustments."
The Pomeroys return to action Saturday against Cornerstone at 11 a.m.