READING, Pa. – The Messiah College men's volleyball team defeated the Alvernia Golden Wolves on the road on Wednesday evening. The Falcons picked up the 3-1 (17-25, 25-18, 25-22, 25-20) win over the Golden Wolves and moved to 7-3 overall and 5-1 in the MAC. Alvernia fell to 8-8 overall and 3-3 in the MAC.

Overall, the Falcons hit a .291 after collecting 48 kills and committing 14 errors on 117 attempts. Defensively, the Falcons stuffed eight blocks and collected 45 digs. Although Messiah was aggressive behind the service line, they committed 14 service errors and only delivered five aces.

Brad Nase led the offense with 43 assists and did a great job utilizing his pin attackers. Logan Hunsberger led the way with 15 kills (.394) and Travis Hoover added 13 kills (.440). Noah Shreiner committed no errors on the evening and terminated eight swings (.571), while Matt Knab and Jarred Sands each contributed six kills. Caleb Weaver was all over the floor on defense and led the Falcons with 10 digs, Matt Knab added eight, while Adam Black and Logan Hunsberger picked up seven digs.

Shaky Start
The beginning of the match opened with some back-and-forth play by both teams and Messiah pulled ahead 7-5 after Noah Shreiner put a ball away. However, Alvernia generated some momentum and tied it up with back-to-back kills. The Golden Wolves started to pull away (8-10) but Messiah tied things up at 11-11 and then took the lead after Logan Hunsberger picked up an ace. The Golden Wolves would strike again and went on an 8-2 run (19-14) past the Falcons in the middle of the set. Messiah dropped the first game to Alvernia 25-17 and would need to minimize their errors if they would want to win the match.

The Falcons only hit a .148 in the first set by tallying a mere nine kills and collected five attack errors. The Golden Wolves on the other hand hit a .346 with ten kills and one error. Messiah also struggled behind the service line and collected six of their total 14 service errors in game one.

That's More Like It
Messiah finally found their rhythm offensively in the second set and hit a .258. They terminated 12 kills and only made four errors on 31 attempts.

Messiah started game two off strong with a big swing from Travis Hoover followed by two terminations by Logan Hunsberger to put the Falcons up 3-0. The Falcons continued to build upon their lead with an error by Alvernia and another kill by Hoover to take the 5-0 lead. The Golden Wolves ended the run after tooling off of Messiah's block. Alvernia started to go on a short run to come within two points (6-4), but Messiah ended that with a kill by Matt Knab and a block by Shreiner. Both teams battled back-and-forth but the Falcons took off on a 4-to-0 run (15-10) to continue to soar past the Golden Wolves. Alvernia sided out and scored two points, however the Falcons responded on an 8-to-2 scoring spree to receive game-point (24-14). The Golden Wolves did not give up and scored four-straight points but Logan Hunsberger ended things at 25-18 to tie the match up a 1-1.

A Close Battle
Alvernia started game three with an early 6-3 lead, however Messiah tied things up at 6-6 after the Golden Wolves committed back-to-back attack errors. Once again the Golden Wolves began to pull ahead (13-9) after some crucial errors by Messiah, which forced the Falcons to call a timeout.  Messiah came out of the time-out with back-to-back points and an ace by Ian Parzyszek to cut Alvernia's lead down to two (14-12). Messiah didn't let off the gas and tied things up 15-15 after Logan Hunsberger scored off of a back-row attack. Alvernia responded to maintain their lead, but Messiah exploded and scored five-straight points to take a 20-16 lead, which led to a time-out by the Golden Wolves. Alvernia came out of their last time-out fighting and came within two-points of the lead (23-21), however Travis Hoover closed the set out 25-22 after a right-side kill to take a 2-1 advantage.

Falcons Come From Behind
Similar to game three, Alvernia started strong and opened with an 8-4 lead. Messiah started to battle back and pulled within one-point (9-8) of the lead after an ace by Matt Knab and a kill by Logan Hunsberger. Both teams battled back-and-forth in the middle of the set, although Alvernia remained on top. Messiah was able to tie things up at 17-17 after Adam Black had an aggressive serve which led to an overpass kill for Noah Shreiner and caused Alvernia to call a time-out. The Golden Wolves came out of the time-out with an attack error to give Messiah their first lead in set four, however a service error by the Falcons would tie things up at 18-18. Messiah took their second lead of the game when Caleb Weaver made a diving save to keep the ball alive and Logan Hunsberger finished the rally with a kill to gain a 20-19 advantage. On the very next possession, Hunsberger connected and terminated for the Falcons and the Golden Wolves called their final time-out. Hunsberger led the Falcons to victory after collected three-straight kills to secure the 25-20 win.

Hunsberger collected five of his 15 total kills in the fourth and final set. Messiah's offense improved as the evening went on and they hit an impressive .407 in the fourth game to win the match 3-1.

Next Up
Messiah will be back in action this Saturday, Mar. 3 when they travel to play Widener University at 3:00 p.m. The two squads recently played on Feb. 24 and Messiah defeated Widener 3-0.