Indiana Tech wins Men's Volleyball Tournament

FORT WAYNE, Ind - (TOURNAMENT PAGE) - Indiana Tech won its second consecutive Wolverine-Hoosier Athletic Conference (WHAC) Men's Volleyball Tournament title after defeating Lourdes 3-1 inside the Schaefer Center. The host-team kept the streak alive becoming the fourth top seed in the tournament to win the title. With the title comes the WHAC's automatic berth to the NAIA Men's Volleyball National Championship. 

Lourdes won a hard fought first set in extra points, 31-29. Indiana Tech held a four-point lead, the largest of the set at 10-6 before committing three errors to add with a kill from Charlie Herr that let Lourdes tie it up. After that, neither team gained more than a two-point lead. With Lourdes at set point at 24-23, five straight service errors knotted the score at 26. Tech turned Lourdes away again at set point (27-26) with a kill from Raekwon Rogers and a Lourdes' attack error gave IT its first set piont. It was short lived as the teams traded points untl a service ace by Vinicius Lopes gave Lourdes the 1-0 lead. 

The second set remained close despite the Warriors hitting .421 while holding Lourdes to .160. Tech maintained a three-point lead throughout the teens and held off a Gray Wolves push with a kill from Jaber Badarne for a 25-21 win to tie the match.

IT took advantage of an out-of-sync LU offense in the third set buliding a comfortable lead early on. Tech's offense found its groove, hitting .500, and the Warriors continued to a 25-15 4 win. 

The Warriors' momentum from the third set carried forward to the fourth. Tech hit .458 while committing just one error to quickly jump to a 13-3 lead and pushed it to a 25-10 win for the match. 

Eduardo Ayala recorded a match-high 35 kills and Jaber Badarne added 22 for Lourdes. Ayala and Gabriel Vianna each had 11 digs while Joey Bianco finished with 20 assits. Lourdes falls to 19-8 and is forced to hope for an at At-Large berth to nationals.

Indiana Tech's Daynte Stewart had 24 kills while Dante Siracusa added 16. Brandon Jones had a match-high 45 assists and Joey Hermes had 20 digs as Tech improves to 19-8 on the season.

All-Time Tournament Champions
2019: (1) Lourdes
2020: No Tournament - COVID
2021: (1) Lourdes
2022: (1) Indiana Tech
2023: (1) Indiana Tech