Box Score
Grantham, PA — It took just 49 minutes for Messiah to cruise past visiting Alvernia University in straight sets Tuesday night at Brubaker Auditorium, improving to 2-0 in the Commonwealth Conference behind a 3-0 (25-10, 25-16, 25-11) dismantling of the Crusaders.
Closely contested, this was not.
Messiah (5-8, 2-0) kept its hot start to conference play in tact, winning its first two league matches for the first time under the current format of the Commonwealth Conference.
Naturally, 14th-year head coach Judi Tobias was pleased.
"It's a good start,” she said of her team's opening to conference play. “It's a good place to be. We haven't done this in a while. It's a good confidence builder.”
There was no shortage of confidence Tuesday evening, as the Falcons began the first set with six aces out of its first 12 points — including four from sophomore Brynn Lettieri. Messiah jumped to early leads of 12-1 and 17-3 before winning 25-10. The team hit a match-high .214 during this set, and the rout was on.
Heavy player rotations highlighted the second set, and Alvernia (0-13, 0-2) kept things interesting at the halfway point, knotting the score at 13-13.
More Messiah domination would follow, however, as the Falcons pulled away in a 25-16 victory. Freshman Lauren Rees led the charge with three of her five total kills during the second set, and the Falcons took a commanding 2-0 lead.
Tobias had set two goals for her team before the match, and one would come into direct play at this point in the evening.
“We wanted to avoid becoming overconfident,” she said. “We've been talking about how we coast when we're winning and we don't stay as focused. That was definitely a big part of our talk. Stay focused and do what we need to do.”
Tobias's speech paid off, as the third set was almost over before it began. The Falcons jumped out to a 10-2 lead, eventually winning 25-9.
The Falcons were so dominant that Alvernia scored consecutive points just six times throughout the course of the match, failing to hit in the positive in any of the three stanzas.
Lettieri led the attack with seven kills to complement six service aces. Rees contributed the aforementioned five kills, while freshman Lindsay King led the team with two solo blocks.
Sophomore Meredith Seibert got the opportunity to run the majority of the team's offense on the night (11 assists), while classmate Lauren Lathrop paced the Falcons' back row defense with six digs.
“We served very well tonight,” Tobias said. “We only had nine errors, which isn't bad. Sixteen aces is impressive, and a season-high for us. We had some nice blocks also. We're still working on giving perfect passes and correcting our skills. We've got some work to do on the serve receive. We work on that every day in practice. That first pass is so critical. It's your first opportunity to set yourself up to score on the other team and the better your passing is, the better your chance is at getting the point.”
Messiah will take a brief hiatus from league play next, as the Falcons will play in the York College Best Western Westgate Invitational on Friday and Saturday. On Friday, the Falcons will face Rutgers University-Camden at 3 p.m., followed by a rematch from last Friday's Susquehanna Crossover with Moravian College at 7 p.m.
Saturday's matches will feature Messiah being paired with the host Spartans at 12 p.m. and Rowan University at 4 p.m. All contests will take place in York's Charles Wolf Gymnasium.
