OWINGS MILLS, Md. – The Messiah College men's volleyball team traveled down to Stevenson University on Thursday evening to take on the top-seeded team in the MAC. The Falcons were defeated by the Mustangs 3-0 (25-19, 25-21, 25-21) and fell to 11-7 overall and 6-2 in the MAC.
Messiah had a poor offensive showing against Stevenson and hit .087 on the match. The Mustangs however had no problem finding their offensive rhythm and hit a .267. The Falcons also committed 15 errors from the service line compared to the Mustangs nine. Stevenson led defensively at the net with 10 team blocks, while the
Noah Shreiner collected two of the Falcons' three blocks.
Logan Hunsberger gathered 12 kills for Messiah, while
Travis Hoover added seven and
Noah Shreiner terminated six.
Brad Nase led the Falcon offense with 29 assists and
Caleb Weaver picked up nine digs on the defensive end.
Messiah started the match off strong with a kill from
Noah Shreiner and an ace from
Brendan Warren to get the ball rolling. Shreiner then picked up a big block for the Falcons which led to an early 3-0 advantage. The Mustangs responded with three-straight points of their own to tie things up. However, a kill from
Brendan Warren put Messiah back on top. Both teams battled back and forth early on in the set as both squads were hungry to terminate. Midway through the set, the Mustangs took off on a four-point scoring run and pulled ahead 16-12. Two of these four points were off of back-to-back errors by the Falcons. Both teams finished the set siding out back-and-forth and Stevenson took the first set, 25-19.
The Mustangs carried the momentum they generated in game one into game two and started with an early 9-3 lead over the Falcons. Messiah started to cut into Stevenson's lead after kills from
Logan Hunsberger and
Travis Hoover (10-6), however the Mustangs pulled ahead after three consecutive errors by the Falcons.
Travis Hoover collected three-straight points, a kill and two aces, to bring the Mustangs' lead down to four (13-9) but once again Stevenson responded with three points of their own to pull ahead 16-9. Messiah went on a 4-to-1 scoring run to bring the lead down to 17-13, but it wouldn't be enough. Stevenson finished the game trading points with Messiah and held their lead to pull ahead 2-0 (25-21).
Messiah struggled to find their groove offensively in the third set, they hit a .108 and committed nine attack errors in the final set. The Falcons battled early and had a 6-5 lead after a kill from
Travis Hoover. The Mustangs went on a run and pulled ahead 12-8 but Messiah answered with back-to-back points to bring Stevenson's lead down to 12-10. The squads battled back-and-forth throughout the middle of the set, but the Mustangs then took off on a 6-to-2 run to pull ahead 20-15. The Falcons were able to put together a 3-to-1 run and brought the Mustangs' lead down to three (21-18) however Landon Shorts answered with a kill to extend Stevenson's advantage. Messiah fought at the end, but was unable to regain any advantage and the Mustangs won the third set 25-21.
As previously mentioned, the Falcons moved to 6-2 in the MAC and currently sit in second place. The Mustangs remained undefeated (7-0) in the MAC after their win against Messiah. The Falcons will look to rebound as they have a full weekend of volleyball ahead of them.
Up Next
Messiah will be back in action on Friday, Mar. 23 when they travel to Widener University to take on Maranatha Baptist University at 7:00 p.m. The Falcons will then turn around and host Alvernia University on Saturday, Mar. 24 at 2:00 p.m. on Jordan Court.
