GRANTHAM, Pa. - The Messiah men's volleyball program hosted their very first NCAA match on Jordan Court in Hitchcock Arena on Saturday evening. The Falcons took on the Chargers from Lancaster Bible College who came into the match with a 5-1 record. The atmosphere was incredible and the fans were loud, but the Falcons fell to the Chargers, 3-1 (25-21, 22-25, 20-25, 14-25) and moved to 0-1 on the season.

As a team, Messiah only hit .168 on the match, however they hit an impressive .385 in game one calculating 13 kills on 26 attempts and only making three errors. Messiah led in the blocking category, collecting 11, and they also dug 34 balls. Lancaster Bible hit a steady .250 on the match, collected nine blocks and an impressive 41 digs.

Messiah was led by outside hitters, Matt Knab, who terminated 12 kills, and Logan Hunsberger, who put away 10 swings. Brad Nase carried the Falcons' offense with 33 assists and he collected four kills of his own. Brendan Warren did a phenomenal job on attack coverage and collected 11 digs on the evening as Messiah's libero. Nate Miller had a dominant performance for the Chargers and he led all attackers with 27 kills.

Slow Start for Falcons
Messiah started the game off with a big swing by Logan Hunsberger to take an early 1-0 but the Chargers responded with an 8-to-1 scoring run past the Falcons. Three of LBC's first eight points were off of Messiah's errors. The Chargers continued to build upon their lead in the first set but Messiah hung around and would eventually turn the tables.

Early Jitters Gone – Messiah Comes Back
The turning point for the Falcons was when Travis Hoover executed a kill off of Brad Nase's set which caused Messiah to go on a small scoring run to narrow LBC's lead to one point (21-20). The Chargers were able to pull ahead after a service error by the Falcons but then Messiah scored four points in a row, three of which were off of LBC errors, to get to game point. Travis Hoover stepped back to the service line, ripped a top-spin serve and collected his first ace of the match to give Messiah the 1-0 lead. As mentioned previously, Messiah hit an impressive .385 in the opening game and only committed three attacking errors.

Battle, Boys, Battle!
Lancaster Bible started game two with three points in a row but then Messiah pulled within one after Logan Hunsberger terminated and Matt Knab picked up an ace. The Chargers made two errors in a row to give the Falcons an early 5-4 advantage, but then Nate Miller put a ball away for LBC to tie the game back up. Messiah seemed to gain some momentum and took an 11-7 lead after Brad Nase made an athletic move at the net to dump the ball into the donut of the Charger's defense.  Once again the Chargers responded and pulled within two points of the Falcons' lead. The Falcons led all of game two until a couple of crucial errors caused the game to be tied at 14-14. Messiah and LBC battled back and forth until the Chargers went up 24-22 and Nate Miller once again terminated for game point. Messiah battled and hit a .231 in game two and only committed five attack errors. LBC on the other hand hit .462 and only committed three errors.

Momentum Shift
The Chargers carried their momentum from the end of game two into game three and opened with a 4-0 scoring run. Messiah started to battle back and get some life when Noah Shreiner and Matt Knab had back-to-back kills to get their sqaud within five points of the lead (10-5). The Chargers began to pull away but at 21-14 they started to get a little comfortable. Matt Knab got things going for Messiah with a kill and LBC made four errors in a row to narrow their lead to just two points (21-19). LBC called a timeout and came out ready to execute. They closed the game on a 4-1 run (25-20) to pull ahead 2 games to 1.

Falcons Fall to Chargers
The Falcons struggled to execute their game plan in the final set. Head coach Justin Beachy called two early timeouts to motivate his team, but the Chargers pulled away and picked up a 25-14 victory. Messiah hit -.032 in the last game, committing 10 errors and only terminating nine kills.

Messiah definitely showed that they are ready to compete at the NCAA DIII level, but they also know what they need to work on to bounce back in their next match.

Next Up
Messiah will be back in action on Wednesday, Jan. 31 when they travel to Penn State Altoona for their 7:00 p.m. match.