The Misericordia University men's volleyball team opened the season with a sweep of a tri-match with SUNY-Poly at Elmira.

The Cougars beat Elmira, 3-1, and swept SUNY-Poly, 3-0.

After dropping the opening set to Elmira, 25-23, the Cougars rallied to win three straight, 25-15, 25-17, 25-23.

MU downed SUNY-Poly 25-20, 29-27, 25-21.

In his Misericordia debut, Jared Piontkowski had 25 kills and four blocks against Elmira and Anthony DePalma added nine kills and four blocks.

Ben Clendening added six blocks.

The Cougars used an 8-1 run to take control of the second set, 20-10.

Zane Martin had two kills and Jackson Fehnel had a kill and an ace to fuel the run.

Piontkowski had five kills in an eight-point span as the Cougars took a 21-16 lead in the third set.  Clendening had a kill and teamed with Piontkowski for a block as a part of 4-0 spurt to close the set.

Trailing 22-21 in the finale, Piontkowski had three kills as the Cougars finished the set on a 4-1 run.

DePalma had 16 kills against SUNY-Poly and Piontkowski had 14 kills and four aces.

Gannon DeFrain combined for 78 assists.

Piontkowski and Fehnel had kills to break a 7-7 tie and put MU in front for good in the opening set against SUNY-Poly.

In a back-and-forth second set, Martin had a kill to keep the Cougars alive and DePalma followed with two kills to secure a 29-27 win.

Piontkowski had an ace and Martin had two kills as part of 5-0 spurt to put Misericordia in front for good, 18-14, in the finale.