GRANTHAM, Pa. - The Messiah College men's volleyball team lost their first Middle Atlantic Conference match to Stevenson University on Thursday evening. The Falcons started strong and won the first game 25-23 but then dropped the next three sets (19-25, 16-25, 13-25). Messiah moved to 5-3 overall and 3-1 in the MAC, while Stevenson moved to 9-5 overall and 5-0 in the MAC.

The Falcons came into the match leading the conference in hitting percentage (.276), however Messiah struggled to maintain their offensive flow as the match went on. Overall, the Falcons hit a .125 and committed 27 attack errors on the match. They also collected 14 service errors and only three aces. Stevenson hit a .287 after they collected 45 kills and only 16 errors on 101 attempts. The Mustangs also had an impressive serving match and collected 11 aces.

Offensively, Brad Nase delivered 35 assists on 40 kills. Matt Knab led the way with 13 kills, while Travis Hoover terminated 10. Both Logan Hunsberger and Noah Shreiner collected six kills for the Falcons. Brendan Warren led the backrow defense with seven digs, while Shreiner and Jarred Sands defended the net with three blocks each.

Impressive Start
Messiah opened up the match with confidence and a sense of urgency. With the score tied at 8-8, Messiah exploded on a 5-to-0 run with Ian Parzyszek back at the service line. The Falcons were ahead 13-8, but the Mustangs hung around and continued to exchange points back-and-forth with Messiah to slowly cut down the lead. Landon Shorts committed an attack error to put the Falcons up 21-18, however Messiah committed back-to-back errors to bring their lead back down to one-point. After a timeout by Messiah, Landon Shorts terminated the ball to tie the game up a 21-21. Stevenson and Messiah each collected back-to-back errors, which led to the score being tied again (22-22), for the eighth time in set one. Messiah then scored two-straight points after the Mustangs committed a service error and Jarred Sands picked up a kill to pull ahead 24-22. Jason Gardner put the ball away for Stevenson to narrow Messiah's lead to 24-23 and Messiah took a timeout. After the timeout, the Mustangs were called for a ball-handling error which gave Messiah a 25-23 win and a 1-0 advantage.

Messiah hit the ball well in the first set. They collected 13 kills on 35 attempts and made six errors (.200). Travis Hoover led the way with four kills in the first game.

Too Many Errors
The Falcons struggled offensively in the second set and hit a -.034 after committing 11 attack errors and only receiving ten kills. Stevenson however hit a .300 and only made three errors in the second set.

The game opened with both teams competing back and forth, but Messiah pulled ahead by two points after Jarred Sands and Travis Hoover produced kills (6-4). The Mustangs responded on a three-point run of their own and were up 7-6 but Logan Hunsberger had an explosive swing to tie the game up at 7-7. Once again, Stevenson answered on a three-point scoring spree causing Messiah to call a timeout. The Falcons came out of the timeout and executed, but Stevenson took off on a 4-to-1 run and pulled ahead 14-9. The Mustangs then committed back-to-back errors to allow room for Messiah to creep back in the game (14-11), but Stevenson collected two consecutive kills and the Falcons made back-to-back errors which gave Stevenson a comfortable 18-12 lead. The Falcons went on and made five errors to close out the game which made it easy for the Mustangs to secure a 25-19 victory and tie up the match at 1-1.

Falcons Fight in Third
After dropping game two, the Falcons were ready to fight in the third set and opened up with a 6-3 lead. Noah Shreiner, Matt Knab, and Jarred Sands started things off with a kill each, while Logan Hunsberger collected back-to-back aces. Messiah did a good job siding out immediately and continued to step on the gas to pull ahead 10-5. However, two errors by the Falcons triggered a 5-to-0 run for the Mustangs to tie the game at 10-10. Both squads exchanged points back-and-forth, but at 14-14 Stevenson once again took off. The Mustangs went on an eight-point scoring run past the Falcons with impressive serving by Logan Smiley. He collected three aces on this run, while Messiah committed four attack errors. This big run created quite a bit of momentum for Stevenson and they closed out the game (25-16) to pull ahead two games to one.

Fourth and Final
Although Messiah hit their best percentage (.222) in the last set, they were unable to pick up the win. Messiah struggled in serve receive and the Mustangs added three more aces on the stat sheet because of the Falcons inconsistent platforms. Due to the Falcons being out of system a majority of the fourth set, they only collected seven kills on 18 attempts. Four of the seven kills for Messiah were produced by freshman Matt Knab. Knab was one of the most consistent attackers on the floor and hit .300 on the evening.

Mustangs Outstanding Offense
The Mustangs had an impressive offensive showing in the last two sets to pick up the 3-1 win over the Falcons. In game three, Stevenson hit .467 and in game four they hit a remarkable .632 and only committed a total of five errors in both games combined.

Back In Action
Messiah will pick up conference play on Saturday Feb. 24 when they host Widener University at 7:30 p.m.