XML Box Score Grantham, PA - The Messiah Falcons suffered their first conference loss Tuesday evening to Lebanon Valley College 3-1 (19-25, 17-25, 25-21, 24-26). After dropping the first two sets, the Falcons (4-1, 1-1) battled back to take set three but couldn't match the pace and consistency of the Dutchmen (8-2, 2-0).
“LVC was our most challenging opponent so far this season,” head coach
Judi Tobias said. “They are a good, fast team and they really forced us to come up with different ways to score tonight.”
In the opening set, the Falcons were plagued by numerous attack errors that resulted in a 6-1 lead for Lebanon Valley. Messiah slowly chipped away at their deficit, eventually pulling to a 16-16 draw, yet the Dutchmen attack – led by Greta Weidemoyer's game-high 14 kills - put the Falcons back on their heels. Weidemoyer closed out the 19-25 set with back-to-back kills.
“Greta [Weidemoyer] is a tremendous player,” Tobias said. “She definitely showed us that we need to become a better blocking team.”
Messiah took the early lead in the second set, but the Dutchmen took advantage of several Falcon attack errors to score seven straight points and claim the lead at 8-14. Despite three kills from
Jane Underman, Messiah couldn't push past the LVC defense eventually dropping the set 17-25.
The third set proved to be quite a nail-biter as both teams swapped the lead numerous times and pulled even 10 different times. At the 13-13 mark Messiah's attack took over, eventually pulling ahead by four points – the set's largest point differential – at 20-16. Moments later, the Dutchmen came within one (20-19), yet a service ace and kills from
Jessica Geib,
Taylor Hook, and
Julia Temple brought Messiah's lead back to four at 24-20.
Alyssa Vorbeck closed out the set with her fifth kill of the match for the 25-21 win.
The nail-biting continued into the fourth set when Messiah fell behind by as many as nine points. After rallying to 17-17 draw, the teams swapped points bringing the score even once again at 19-19. A strong offensive push by the Dutchmen put them on top 23-24. Back-to-back kills for LVC and an attack error by the Falcons closed out set four 24-26 in favor of the Dutchmen, giving them the 3-1 victory.
“They [LVC] has played a few more games than we have at this point in the season,” Tobias said. “They worked really well together and had a great flow to their game. We will continue to gain confidence as we get more sets under our belt.”
The dynamic, first-year duo of
Jane Underman and
Taylor Hook led the Falcons' attack with 11 kills on 28 attempts and 11 kills on 26 attempts, respectively. On the defensive side,
Allison Hill's 16 digs led Messiah while
Jessica Geib added 15.
With the loss, the Falcons drop to 4-1 on the season and 1-1 in the conference, while the Dutchmen improve to 8-2 and 2-0 in the conference. Messiah will return to action on Friday when they travel to Susquehanna University for the Old Friends Crossover where they will play Susquehanna at 6 p.m. and Moravian College at 8 p.m.
