GROVE CITY, Pa. (March 26) -- The Thiel College Men's Volleyball team clinched the Presidents' Athletic Conference (PAC) regular season championship Wednesday evening with their 11th straight victory, a 3-1 triumph over Grove City College at Grove City College Arena.

Thiel will be the number-one seed in the PAC Championship Tournament and have hosting rights through the final. With the victory, Thiel is guaranteed a home semifinal match on Thursday, April 10. 

The Tomcats improved to 18-6 (10-0) with set score wins of 25-16, 19-25, 25-16 and 26-24 while the Wolverines drop to 11-13 (6-4). 

Set four had 18 ties and five lead changes as neither side led by more than 2 the entire frame. Grove City used a 3-0 run to pull ahead 20-18 and force a Thiel timeout. The Blue and Gold responded with a 3-0 run of its own, capped by back-to-back Ezra Oesterling (Shelocta, Pa./West Shamokin) kills, to go ahead 21-20. The Tomcats got a match-point chance off a Tyler Hussey (Irwin, Pa./Norwin) kill to make it 24-23 but the Wolverines sided out to to tie things at 24. A Bryce Lizanich (Coraopolis, Pa./Montour) kill followed by a Lizanich solo stuff ended the match and gave Thiel its first regular season conference championship in team history.

Oesterling posted a match-leading 19 kills on .333 hitting, dug nine balls and had a pair of blocks. Lizanich tallied 13 kills on .556 hitting from the middle and had five blocks (3 BS, 2 BA) to go with two digs.

An Oesterling kill followed by a Ben Lowell (Portland, Ore./Sunset) ace gave Thiel a 13-8 edge in set one. A 6-2 spurt capped by an Oesterling kill off of a Lowell assist made it 20-14. Thiel logged 5 of the last 6 points in the set, the last of which came on a Lowell ace, to go ahead 1-0.

Lowell, a sophomore, eclipsed 1,000 career assists in the victory, becoming the fifth player in program history to do so. He dished out a match-pacing 40 assists to go with 10 digs for his third double-double of the season. He served two aces as well.

A Hussey kill grew the Tomcats' lead to 9-2 in set three. A Kaleb Proudfoot (Butler, Pa./Butler) ace followed by a Connor McInnis (Southington, Conn./Southington) kill capped a 4-0 run and gave Thiel a 17-7 advantage. Grove City made a late push and got within 6 at 22-16, but a 3-0 run from Thiel ended the frame and put the Tomcats ahead 2-1.

Hussey logged six kills on .286 hitting, two digs and and two blocks in the victory. Proudfoot added five kills, a career-best two aces and three blocks (1 BS, 2 BA). McInnis added four kills and a season-best eight digs.

Grove City evened the match at one in set two as they hit .324 in the frame and held Thiel to .152, its lowest hitting percentage in a set during the match.

Defensively, Thiel out-dug Grove City 58-50. Josh Pugh (Wexford, Pa./Pine Richland) dug eight balls, Josh Hovan (Baden, Pa./Ambridge) dug seven and David Gonzalez (El Paso, Texas/Eastwood) added six digs. The Tomcats won the blocking battle with 10.5 blocks (5 BS, 8 BA) to Grove City's seven (1 BS, 12 BA). The Blue and Gold hit .256 and held the Wolverines to .167.

Men's Volleyball returns to action next Wednesday for a 7 p.m. PAC showdown at Saint Vincent College.