ADRIAN, Mich. - The Adrian men's volleyball team has only a handful of games left on its 2022 regular-season schedule, literally. The final five contests in the push to the postseason begin this week with a grudge match against Aquinas College, and a conference-bout against Mount St. Joseph University.

The Bulldogs (5-16, 2-2 MCVL) and the Saints (15-6, 6-4 WHAC) have become quite familiar with each other since the start of the season, having met twice already. Aquinas, however, has the better of the black and gold coming into this week, winning both of those meetings by a combined score of 6-1.

Senior Julian Armendano, who actively leads the Wolverine-Hoosier Athletic Conference with 371 kills and a 0.344 attack percentage, was recently recognized as the NAIA's National Attacker of the Week on March 8 after helping the Saints to four-straight victories between the 2nd and the 5th, including back-to-back wins over No. 6 Missouri Baptist and #14 Saint Xavier.

Against Adrian this season, Armendano leads Aquinas with 37 total kills (5.3 per set). His teammate Matthew Richmond, who named the WHAC's Setter of the Week on March 7, dished out 41 dimes versus the Bulldogs two weeks ago, and currently sits third in the league with 656 total assists.

Adrian and Aquinas' third match-up this year will represent the local's final non-conference contest of the season, and will lead them into a four-game league-stretch, starting with Mount St. Joseph on Friday.

The Lions (7-8, 1-3 MCVL) sit only one game back of the 'Dogs in the MCVL standings, and are coming off of a five-set win over Siena Heights on Sunday.

Jason Hascher ranks atop the conference leaderboard with 3.83 kills per set, while his total mark of 203 kills ranks third.

Elsewhere on Mount St. Joseph's line-up, Josh Kabel paces the backline with 101 digs, followed by Hascher, who has 89.

Friday will be the ninth all-time meeting between the Lions and the Bulldogs, with Mount St. Joseph controlling the series, 7-1.

Adrian, nevertheless, has won each of its last two in-conference matches, led by the MCVL's leading-attacker in Chase Heuer (305 kills), and Brandon Ravelo, who continues to rank among the league's top servers (0.58 aces per set) and setters (9.54 assists per set).

Both of this week's matches will include live stats and live video.