CHICAGO—The Illinois Institute of Technology men's volleyball team welcomed St. Xavier University to the Keating Sports Center for their 2020 home opener on Friday. The Cougars, who entered Friday's bout ranked No. 7 in NAIA, escaped with a 3-1 victory that included a combined 44 blocks assisted.

The Scarlet Hawks fall to 0-2, 0-0 NACC while St. Xavier stays unbeaten at 4-0, 0-0 CCAC.

"I told the guys to be happy but not satisfied," said IIT head men's volleyball coach Mark Johnston. "Things are slowly coming together for us and we're going to continue to see a high level of competition tomorrow and next weekend. We've proved the we can play up to that level, we just have to be more consistent with more aspects of the game."

It was a block party as Illinois Tech was dominate at the net with a combined 30 blocks, and Evan Robeck played a large role in that with three solo blocks along with six assisted for a game total of nine. Jannik Birkholz, who registered a game-high 30 assists, registered five assisted blocks along with Michael Sherwood. Libero Derek Bostick added nine digs for the IIT defense. 

Andriy Bench commanded the IIT offense with 14 kills, which highlighted his team's .099 hitting mark compared to St. Xavier's .130. 

Grant Ooms paced the Cougar offense with 15 kills, followed by Justin McCarthy's 10. Ryan Gossett came through with 15 digs for St. Xavier.

The Cougars took set one 25-18. Despite nine service errors in the second set, the Scarlet Hawks came through with a 25-20 win behind Bench's five kills in the frame. IIT couldn't built that momentum with a 25-17 loss in set three. Set four saw IIT in a 19-15 hole before Evan Robeck's four blocks commanded an IIT 7-1 run that gave them a 22-20 lead. The set continued to be within two points from that point forward as St. Xavier iced the game with an IIT attack error followed by a Grant Ooms kill to make the score final at 26-24.

The Scarlet Hawks will face North Central College (Ill.) on the road tomorrow, Saturday, February 1 at 1:30 p.m.