THOUSAND OAKS, Calif.—The 14th-ranked Hobart volleyball team suffered a 3-0 loss to No. 8 California Lutheran this evening as it opened action on its spring break trip in California. With the loss, the Statesmen fall to 18-7 overall, while the Kingsmen move to 19-4 on the season.

Hobart was led by sophomore Noah DeLong (.208) and graduate student Andrew Kim's (.350) 10 kills each. Kim chipped in nine digs, four assists, two blocks and an ace in the setback. Sophomore Daniel Sappia added five kills (.048), three digs and an ace in the loss for the Statesmen. Graduate student Benjamin Lincoln and sophomore Zack Farren led Hobart from the setter position, tallying 15 and 11 assists each, respectively.

California Lutheran was led by Jordan Cooper with 10 kills (.364), three blocks and a service ace this evening. Borys Horiuk (.667) and Michael Stahl (.100) chipped in seven kills each in the win and combined for four digs, three blocks and two service aces. Gavin Galanski tallied a match-high 27 assists for the Kingsmen.

MATCH MOMENTS:

• Hobart came out slow in the opening set, tallying a match-low eight kills (.160) as a team compared to California Lutheran's 11 (.250). The Kingsmen found crucial early points from its block and from the service line to grab a 25-17 win in set one.
• The Statesmen continued to struggle to find their momentum in the second set as the errors plagued to visiting side. Despite combining for 11 kills (.097), Hobart racked up eight hitting errors and five service errors, handing California Lutheran a 25-18 win in set two.
• The Kingsmen opened the third set on a 5-0 scoring run and never looked back. Hobart tallied a match-high 12 kills (.296) but were matched by an efficient California Lutheran side that caught the hot hand and tallied a match-high 15 kills on one hitting error, hitting a .483 clip. A Kingsmen service ace followed by a big block by the home team closed out the nonconference battle in favor of California Lutheran, 25-18.

MATCH STATS:

• Kim (.350) and DeLong (.208) led the Statesmen with 10 kills each in the loss. Sappia chipped in five kills (.048), while first-year Alain Malcolm added three kills (.750) out of the middle for Hobart.
• Lincoln and Farren led Hobart from the setter position, tallying 15 and 11 assists each, respectively. The duo combined for five digs as well in the setback.
• Defensively, the Statesmen combined for 24 digs as a team and were led by Kim with nine. Lincoln chipped in four digs, while sophomore libero added three digs this evening.
• Hobart combined for three total blocks and was led by Kim and Malcolm with two each. Sophomore Aiden Kemora added one block against the Kingsmen.

UP NEXT:
 
Hobart will be back in action tomorrow, March 21, when it concludes its spring break trip with a nonconference battle against the Master's University. First serve between the Statesmen and the top-ranked NAIA team in the country, the Mustangs, is set for 10 p.m. (7 p.m. PT) in the MacArthur Center.