The Misericordia University men's volleyball team opened the season with a tough 3-2 loss at Hobart in a battle of nationally-ranked teams.

The 20^th-ranked Cougars took the first two sets, but #16 Hobart rallied to win three straight sets.

Jackson Fehnel led the Cougars with 11 kills and two blocks while Benjamin Clendening added six kills and two blocks.

Christopher U'Glay had eight kills in his MU debut and Evan Schmidt had 20 assists.

The Cougars took the opener, 25-21, and won the second set, 25-20.

Hobart stayed alive with a 25-12 win and pulled even with a 25-15 win.  Hobart took the clincher, 15-8.

Trailing 10-7 in the first set, the Cougars took advantage of five straight Hobart errors to take a 12-10 lead.

The teams went back-and-forth the rest of the way until MU closed on a 4-0 run.  U'Glay sandwiched a kill and an ace around a pair of kills by Fehnel.

Down 15-14 in the second set, the Cougars used a 5-1 run to go in front for good.

Fehnel had a kill and Logan Romeika capped the spurt with an ace to take a 19-16 lead.

Fehnel added two more kills as the Cougars scored three of the last four points of the set.

Hobart jumped to an 8-1 lead and never trailed in the third set and used a 5-1 run to take a 19-10 lead in the third set.

Hobart took a 5-0 lead on the way to victory in the finale.