CINCINNATI, Ohio - At the Harrington Center, the Adrian men's volleyball team and the homestanding Lions played three, highly competitive sets. However, the scale never quite tilted in the Bulldogs' favor, as Mount St. Joseph snapped the black and gold's conference win-streak with a 3-0 victory.

Each of the evening's first two sets were decided by only two points, and on the stat sheet, both sides were putting forth nearly identical numbers. In fact, after two frames, the Lions had a slim advantage on the attack, 0.250 to 0.246.

Despite hanging tough with its conference-foe offensively, Adrian could not make it stick when it counted, allowing Mount St. Joseph to build a two-set lead that it would ride to a straight-set sweep.

In the opening frame, the 'Dogs trailed by as many as four points, down 16-12, before a subsequent kill by Chase Heuer went on to spark a 7-2 run, moving the visitors in front, 19-18. The Lions though ended the set on a 7-4 stretch of their own, putting down four successful attacks and two service aces during that span.

An 8-2 start to the middle set got Adrian off on the right foot to try and knot up the match, led by the Gula duo of Tedrick and Branden, who combined to make-up four of the eight Bulldog points. From that point, however, the Lions slowly began chipping away at the deficit, even posting a five-point streak in the latter
stages of the frame to help them eventually push ahead for good.

Then, in the third, the score was neck-and-neck from the initial serve, with the cross-state rivals exchanging leads, including a three-point comeback by the Bulldogs to draw the set level at 19-19. Mount St. Joseph, nevertheless, got the final word, closing the match on a six-point run.

Heuer paced Adrian with a team-high 13 kills, followed by Branden Gula with nine.

Brandon Ravelo contributed 30 of the 'Dogs 31 total assists, and Tedrick Gula led the team defensively with nine digs.

The men's volleyball team will have some time off before resuming their 2022 schedule. The black and gold and slated to retake the floor on March 25 when they wrap up the road portion of their campaign at Olivet.