By Matt Funk ‘19

The Spiking Crusaders took on the Spartans of St. Francis at Brother Rice on April 4. The Crusaders came in with a record of 5-9 while the Spartans had a record of 7-0.

The Crusaders lost a hard fought match in two sets but only lost by a total of four points.

In the first set the game was close with a final score of 25-23. Tim Novick had 4 kills and Conor Doyle had 3 blocks.

“We played a well-rounded match but they just pulled away in the end,” said senior Tom Gallagher.

The second set was pretty similar. The Crusaders were down 24-21 and made a quick comeback to make the score 24-24. St. Francis then put away two big kills to end it.

“It was a pretty good match for us. St. Francis is a top 10 team in the state and we gave them a good game,” said junior Michael Nelligan.

Conor Doyle finished the game with 6 blocks and Tim Novick had 8 kills.

The Crusaders have now started the season 5-9 but plan to turn it around after big improvements in the most recent games.