WILKES-BARRE, Pa. - The Messiah College men's volleyball team moved to 2-0 in the Middle Atlantic Conference after they swept Wilkes University 3-0 (25-13, 25-17, 25-19). With this victory over the Colonels, the Falcons moved to 3-1 overall. 

Logan Hunsberger led Messiah's offense with 11 kills, while Travis Hoover and Jarred Sands each tallied eight. Matt Knab and Noah Shreiner added five apiece. Brad Nase distributed the ball well and calculated 30 assists, while Hunsberger led the defense with seven digs. 

As a team, Messiah hit a steady .372 and their efficiency got better as the match went on. Wilkes on the other hand hit .139 on the evening. Messiah collected eight team blocks, Jarred Sands led the way with three of those blocks, but the Falcons also collected five blocking errors.

Scorching Start
Messiah had a hot start to the match and opened up on a 6-to-0 scoring run. After a service error by the Colonels, Jarred Sands and Logan Hunsberger collected back-to-back kills to start the match for the Falcons. The Colonels scored their first point when Cole Hefner got a kill, but Logan Hunsberger responded with a termination of his own. Some back-and-forth action occurred between the two squads and then Wilkes went on an short three-point run to narrow the scoring margin to 10-6. Once again, the teams exchanged points but Messiah gained some momentum and went on a 6-to-0 run to close out the first set. Jarred Sands connected with Brad Nase to score game point and go up 1-0.

In the first game, Messiah tallied 16 kills and 5 errors on 32 attempts (.344%). Logan Hunsberger led the way in the first set with six of his 11 kills.

Messiah Maintains Momentum
Messiah started off on an aggressive note and opened game two with a 5-to-1 lead. However, Wilkes would slowly inch their way back into the game and went on a three-point run to come within one-point of the lead (10-9). Head Coach Justin Beachy called a timeout to settle the Falcons' squad down and Jarred Sands came out of the timeout with a kill. Wilkes and Messiah battled and exchanged points, however the Colonels committed back-to-back errors to give Messiah a 14-11 advantage. After exchanging points back-and-forth Jarred Sands once again ignited Messiah's offense with back-to-back kills and led his team to a four-point run (22-14). The Colonels committed three crucial errors at the end of the game and Messiah would win 25-17 and gained a 2-0 advantage going into the third set.

Falcons Finish Strong
In the third and final game, Messiah hit .409 as a team to close out the match. They collected 11 kills and only committed two attack errors. Matt Knab opened up the game with back-to-back aces, while the Colonels committed three errors to give Messiah an early 5-to-1 lead. Wilkes started to clean things up and went on the three-point one to bring Messiah's lead down to 5-4. The Falcons responded with two-straight points but once again Wilkes hung around. The Colonels went on another three-point scoring run to tie the game up at 7-7, but then Messiah collected three kills and an ace to go on a 4-to-0 run (11-7) of their own. Once again, the action continued with exchanging points, but after two Colonel errors and two kills from Quay San and Mason McCullough Messiah gained a 24-17 advantage. Wilkes didn't give up and collected two last minute kills, but Matt Knab finished things off, off of an outside set from Thomas Wood, to give Messiah the 3-0 victory.

Up Next
The Falcons will travel to Arcadia University on Saturday where they will compete against St. Joseph's College – LI at 1:00 p.m. and College of Mount Saint Vincent at 3:00 p.m. Messiah will then pick up conference play on Wednesday, Feb. 14 when they host Arcadia at 7:00 p.m.