CHICAGO—The Illinois Institute of Technology men's volleyball team welcomed No. 6 Dominican (Ill.) University to the Keating Sports Center for their 2021 home opener on Tuesday night. The Scarlet Hawks, who opened the 2021 season with back-to-back opponents on the AVCA Division III Men's Top 15 Poll, found themselves on the wrong end of a 3-0 score to the Stars.

Illinois Tech falls to 0-2, 0-2 NACC while Dominican (Ill.) stays unbeaten at 4-0, 2-0 NACC.

"We opened up against two of the better teams in our conference, and now the focus is on the middle pack of the conference," said Illinois Tech head volleyball coach Mark Johnston. "Those are the teams we ultimately need to play well against to make the conference tournament. Right now we need to focus on getting better in every practice and match. Even in our losses we need to learn from our mistakes, which we made a lot of tonight. We can't make those mistakes against other teams in the conference."

Dominican (Ill.) 3, Scarlet Hawks 0

Andriy Bench made his 2021 season debut with a team-leading seven kills for the Scarlet Hawks, followed by freshman Jackson Van Engen's five and an efficient .444 hitting mark. Fellow freshman Lucas Guanes registered a season-high 20 assists for Illinois Tech, along with four digs. Jack Bovone notched a game-high five digs for the Scarlet Hawks. 

Dominican's George Kougan paced his squad with 10 kills, while teammate Jack McGuire finished with 25 assists. Adrian Cebula posted a team-high 12 digs for the Stars.

The Scarlet Hawks will return to action on Thursday, February 25 at Aurora (R.V.). Game time is set for 7:00 p.m.