Grantham, PA - The Falcons swept the Warriors of Lycoming College Wednesday night 3-0 (25-19, 25-18, 25-22). The win improved the Falcons overall record to 16-5 and 4-1 in the Commonwealth Conference. Messiah is firing on all cylinders as they ride a five game winning streak after the tonight's victory.
The Falcons started out slow as they gave up a five point scoring streak to the Warriors early in the set and trailed Lycoming 11-6. The Warriors Kristine Jahn had two service aces during the scoring streak and finished with four service aces for the match. Messiah battled back and tied the match at 14 while putting together a five point scoring streak of their own with kills by
Hannah Baumer,
Kristen Douglas, and
Brooke Gallagher to take a 19-16 lead. The Falcons held their lead and finished the set with a service ace by
Brooke Gallagher to capture the first set victory.
The Warriors hung with the Falcons throughout the second set but the Falcons were too much towards the end and pulled away from the Warriors. Messiah only committed two errors during this set while Lycoming committed four. The key to the Falcons second set victory was finishing their attacks as they compiled a .464 attack percentage compared to the Warriors .188.
The third and final set of the match was a thriller. The Falcons grabbed a demanding 12-6 lead with service aces from
Liz MacNeil and kills by
Alyssa Vorbeck,
Kristen Douglas,
Jane Underman, and
Brooke Gallagher. Lycoming stormed back with two four point scoring streaks to even the score at 17. Both teams played hard and evened the score at 22 a piece. Messiah prevailed and scored three points in a row from two kills by
Jane Underman and a bad set by Lycoming.
The Falcons were led offensively by
Jane Underman who collected 14 kills and
Brooke Gallagher who compiled 38 assists. Defensively,
Kristen Douglas had a great game finishing with 11 digs. Messiah will take the court next October 10th when they take on the College of New Rochelle in their first match of the Kean University Tournament.