HARRISONBURG, Va. - The Messiah College men's volleyball traveled to Eastern Mennonite University on Saturday evening to compete in the EMU tri-match. The Falcons opened the evening with a 3-0 (25-16, 25-23, 25-20) sweep over the Thiel Tomcats. Messiah will take on the host team, Eastern Mennonite, at 6:00 p.m. In the second match, Messiah fell to the Royals from Eastern Mennonite 3-2 (25-21, 25-21, 16-25, 18-25, 12-15) in a thrilling five-setter. The Falcons dropped to 11-6 overall and Eastern Mennonite moved to an impressive 18-8.

Match One: Messiah College 3, Thiel College 0
The Falcons had a dominant performance in their opening match against Thiel College. Overall, Messiah hit a .300 (39 kills, 15 errors, 80 attempts) and collected 5.5 total blocks against the Tomcats. Messiah was inconsistent from the service line, committing 13 errors and only receiving five aces, however their offense made up for it. Travis Hoover (.579) collected 11 kills for Messiah and didn't commit a single attack error. Logan Hunsberger added eight kills, while Noah Shreiner (.700) terminated seven on ten attempts. Brad Nase gathered 24 assists and Thomas Wood added ten of his own. Caleb Weaver led the Falcon's back row defensive line with ten digs.

Messiah opened with an early 8-5 lead after the Falcons collected five kills. Thiel then went off on a three-point scoring run to tie the set at 8-8. Logan Hunsberger scored a powerful kill to regain the lead (9-8) however he couldn't connect on his serve and the score was back tied at 9-9. Both teams competed back-and-forth however Messiah collected four early service errors which allowed the Tomcats to hang around. The Falcons came out of their timeout and went on a four-point scoring run (17-12). Messiah continued to build upon their lead after an ace by Logan Hunsberger and a big block by Hoover and Sands (20-14). The Falcons finally found their rhythm at the end of the first set and defeated the Tomcats 25-16. Messiah dominated the statistical categories in game one. They hit a .500 after terminating 13 swings and only committing three errors on 20 attempts.

The Falcons trailed early as Thiel started the second set with three-straight points. Messiah responded on a 5-to-0 run and grabbed a 5-3 lead. Messiah struggled from the service line at the beginning of the set, four of the Tomcat's seven points were off of the Falcons' serving errors. The score was tied 12-12 and Quay San collected a kill to put Messiah up one. Both teams battled throughout the middle of the set and Messiah began to pull ahead 20-17. However, Thiel stuck around and scored back-to-back points to come within one-point of the lead (20-19). The Falcons took off and gained a 24-21 advantage over Thiel but the Tomcats responded scoring two-consecutive points to once again come within one-point of the lead (24-23). Thiel committed a service error at the end of the set to give Messiah the 25-23 victory.

Thiel opened up the second set with a 2-0 lead but Will Webb got things going for Messiah with a tip over the block. Quay San then received a stuffed block in the middle to tie the game 2-2.  Both teams were tied at 4-4, however the Tomcats went on a six-point run to pull ahead 10-4. Messiah began to chip away at Thiel's lead and after a couple big swings by Ian Parzyszek, the Falcons only trailed 13-11. Parzyszek tied the game at 14-14 after a dominant serve and then took the lead after an attack error by the Tomcats. Both squads battled back-and-forth throughout the middle of the set and after Thiel tooled off the Falcons' block, the score was tied at 19-19. Ian Parzyszek once again came in clutch for Messiah and scored back-to-back points to pull the Falcons ahead 21-19. The Falcons finished the end of the third set on a 4-to-1 run and won the final set 25-20.

Match Two: Messiah College 2, Eastern Mennonite University 3
Messiah started the match up two games to none, however they dropped the last three sets to a very talented Eastern Mennonite team. On the evening, the Falcons hit .190 after collecting 60 kills and 33 errors on 142 attempts. EMU improved as the match went on and hit a .262 (55 kills, 22 errors, 126 attempts). The Royals dominated defensively at the net and collected 14 blocks, while the Falcons only gathered five blocks. Logan Hunsberger led the Falcons with 24 kills, while Travis Hoover added 22 of his own. Brad Nase collected 50 assists for Messiah and Caleb Weaver had 12 digs. Matt Knab and Noah Shreiner each collected three blocks at the net.

The Royals started off strong with an early 2-0 lead, but Logan Hunsberger put away a right side attack to get things started for Messiah. Eastern Mennonite responded and continued to build upon their lead and opened up an 8-3 advantage. The Falcons called an early time-out to refocus, but the Royals continued to dominate and collected back-to-back blocks out of the time-out. Messiah slowly began chipping away at the Royals' lead and got within two points (12-10) after a kill by Matt Knab and an error from Eastern Mennonite. The squads traded points back-and-forth throughout the middle of the set and Messiah trailed 17-18. Logan Hunsberger connected on back-to-back kills to give Messiah the 19-18 advantage and their first lead of the game. Messiah continued to maintain the lead throughout the remainder of the set and secured a 25-21 win after an ace on game point from Thomas Wood.

The Falcons carried the momentum they generated at the end of game one into game two and opened with a 7-1 lead over the Royals which forced EMU to call an early time-out. Following the time-out, both teams battled hard and Messiah did a great job siding out and continued to hold a six-point advantage (12-6) over the Royals. However, EMU found some blocks at the net and began to edge their way back into the game (12-9). The Falcons took off on a 8-to-4 scoring run to pull ahead 20-13. The Royals generated some momentum late in the set and scored four-straight points to bring Messiah's lead down to 20-17. Both teams battled at the end of the set but the Falcons finished the game (25-21) after Matt Knab collected a kill and the Royals committed an attacking error. The Falcons hit an impressive .312 in the second set, collecting 17 kills and seven errors on 32 attempts which led them to the victory.

Similar to game one, Eastern Nazarene opened the third set with an 8-4 advantage over Messiah. In the middle of the set, the Royals had a seven-point lead over Messiah (16-9) and eight of EMU's 16 points were off of the Falcons' errors. The Royals continued to dominate the set and defeated Messiah 25-16. The Falcons hit a game-low .000 with only nine kills and nine errors on 32 attempts, however Travis Hoover collected seven of those nine kills.

Once again, the Falcons trailed 8-4 early in the fourth set as they struggled getting in system off of the Royal's aggressive serves.  Back-to-back service errors gave Eastern Mennonite at 10-6 lead over Messiah, however Logan Hunsberger was able to terminate with a left-handed swing to bring the lead down to three-points (10-7). The Royals were able to side out and build upon their lead by going on a 7-to-4 run past Messiah to gain a 17-11 advantage. Eastern Mennonite dominated at the end of the fourth set and secured a 25-18 victory. Although the Falcons improved offensively in game four (.233), the Royals hit an impressive .464.

Messiah opened up the fifth and final set with a 3-1 lead, but the Royals fought back to tie it up at 3-3. Both teams battled hard and the score was tied three different times, but Eastern Mennonite pulled ahead 8-6 and the squads switched sides. The Falcons tied the deciding set at 9-9 after Logan Hunsberger had a huge termination on the left side and the Royal's committed an attack error. Eastern Mennonite was able to side out and pull ahead 12-10 forcing the Falcons to call a time-out. Messiah came out of the timeout with a side out, but the Royals responded to take a 13-11 lead. Travis Hoover was able to pick up a kill to bring the lead down to one but then committed a service error to give EMU match point. The Royals ended the match with a kill and defeated the Falcons 15-12 in an impressive battle by both teams.

Up Next
Messiah will pick up MAC play when they travel Stevenson University on Wednesday, Mar. 21. Match time is scheduled for 7:00 p.m.