Marian University men’s volleyball (2-0, 0-0 NACC) defeated Simpson in straight sets and UW-Stevens Point in five sets to open the season.
 

  MARIAN VS. SIMPSON (W – 25-14, 25-16, 25-20)

• The Sabres jumped out to an early 8-4 lead and pulled away in the opening set with an 8-1 run.
• The second set was closer, opening with a 9-9 draw.
• Marian then went on an 8-2 spurt to build a six-point lead.
• The Storm managed to cut that deficit to three before Marian ended the set with six straight points.
• Using that momentum, Marian opened the third with a 6-1 advantage.
• Simpson was able to hang tight the remainder of the set but couldn’t rally to force a fourth

MARIAN VS. UW-STEVENS POINT (W – 25-18, 25-19, 22-25, 22-25, 15-9)

• Marian had a strong start to match two and were able to hold off the Pointers in a five-set thriller.
• UWSP opened the first set with an 8-7 lead only for Marian to score seven straight points to lead by six.
• The Sabres built their lead to as large as eight before taking the set 2-18.
• The Pointers once again had an early lead to open the second at 12-10 but Marian rallied with an 8-2 spurt to lead by four.
• A quick 5-2 run shortly after gave Marian a 2-0 advantage.
• The third set saw the roles reverse as Marian started with a 17-14 lead only for UWSP to score five straight points.
• The Sabres were able to tie the set at 20-20 before three straight points helped the Pointers keep the match alive.
• The largest lead for the fourth was a meager three points in the early going of set four leading to a 19-19 stalemate.
• The Pointers were able to score four straight to take the lead and managed to force a fifth on its third set-point chance.
• Both teams continued to go point-for-point with Marian taking an 8-5 lead into the turn. 
• UWSP would only trail 11-9 before the Sabres were able to close the match out with four straight points.

 VS. SIMPSON

• Marian held a 35-20 edge for kills and 47-36 advantage for digs.
• The Sabre offense hit .500 in the opening set and finished he match at .276.
• Defensively, Marian held Simpson to .045 hitting and had four blocks.
• This was the first meeting between the two schools.

VS. UW-STEVENS POINT

• Marian finished with a 57-49 edge in kills and 58-52 advantage for digs.
• The Pointers were limited to .084 hitting for the match and hit -.080 in the fifth set.
• The Sabre offense went for a .214 hitting percentage.
• Marian had 18 service errors to 10 for UWSP.
• The Sabres improve to 3-0 all-time against the Pointers.

	Senior Trent Goo Sun had 40 assists on the day including a double-double against UWSP with 25 assists and 10 digs.  He also had a team-high nine kills and hit .533 against Simpson.
	Senior Derek Wills had 22 kills betwen the two matches with a double-double against UWSP with 13 kills and 13 digs.
	Freshman Adrian Calderon finished with a team-high 14 kills against UWSP and hit .417 in the win.