UNION, N.J. - The Messiah men's volleyball team traveled to The Clash at Kean on Saturday with matches scheduled against No. 11 North Central and Hunter College. The Falcons opened the day against the North Central Cardinals, falling by a 3-0 (25-17, 25-20, 25-10) final against the nationally ranked foe. Messiah bounced back and defeated the Hunter College Hawks 3-2 in a thrilling five-setter (26-28, 25-15, 10-25, 25-17, 15-12). Messiah is now 2-2 overall and will return to the court on Feb. 6 at Lancaster Bible College.
 

Match One: Messiah College 0, North Central College 3
North Central held a 5-2 lead over Messiah early in set one, but the Falcons put together a 4-to-1 run to pull within one point of the lead (6-5). The Cardinals responded with four-straight points and pulled ahead 10-5. The two teams battled throughout the middle of the set, but once again North Central went on a run including three Falcon errors and had a 20-11 advantage. The Falcons pieced together three-straight points at the end of the set, however it wouldn't be enough. The Cardinals closed out the first set 25-17. In the set, Messiah hit 0.029 as a team in game one and committed eight attack errors. Matt Knab led Messiah with three of his six kills in the first set.

In set two, Messiah hit an impressive .333 after terminating eleven kills on 27 attempts with only two errors. The Falcons once again had a slower start to the game and trailed 6-1 early. However, Messiah went on a 6-to-2 run to bring the Cardinals' lead down to one point (8-7). North Central started to pull ahead, but kills from Adam Black and Matt Knab kept the score close at 12-10. Both teams battled towards the end of the set and Isaiah Han terminated off a Brad Nase set to put the score at 22-20, with North Central having a slight advantage. The Cardinals closed out the set with three-straight points to claim the set 25-20.

North Central kept their foot on the gas in the third and final set, defeating the Falcons 25-10. Messiah struggled to connect offensively in game three, hitting -.150 (four kills and seven errors), while the Cardinals hit a game high .500.

The Falcons will move on to play Hunter College at 5:00 p.m. this evening.

Match Two: Messiah College 3, Hunter College 2
After dropping their first match to North Central College, the Falcons bounced back and defeated Hunter College in an exciting five-setter (26-28, 25-15, 10-25, 25-17, 15-12). Matt Knab led the way with a career-high of 20 kills and collected 11 digs. Will Webb terminated 10 balls and had three service aces. Brad Nase steadied the Falcons' offense with 42 assists and also picked up three aces. Caleb Weaver added 14 digs for Messiah, while Adam Black contributed nine.

The opening set was close and the lead changed on eight different occasions and was tied 18 different times. Messiah held an 18-17 advantage after a kill from Matt Knab, but the Hawks pieced together three-consecutive points to pull ahead 20-18. Messiah tied things up at 20-20 after a kill from Isaiah Han and an error by the Hawks, however Hunter sided out and remained on-top (23-21). The Falcons called a time-out and came back on the court with some momentum. Messiah collected three-straight points including an ace from Brad Nase and they took a 24-23 lead. Both teams battled at the end of the set, but Hunter scored on back-to-back kills to take game one 28-26.

Messiah proved themselves in the second set and defeated the Hawks 25-15. The Falcons collected 13 kills on 26 attempts with seven errors (.231), while Hunter hit in the negative (-.130) after collecting only five kills on 23 attempts with eight errors. The set was tied at 7-7 and then the Falcons took off on a 13-3 scoring run to pull ahead 20-10. The Falcons finished the set with three kills from Isaiah Han, Matt Knab, and Jarred Sands all from Brad Nase's assists to claim a 25-15 victory and even the game up at 1-1.

The tables turned in the third set and Messiah found themselves hitting in the negative (-.148) including nine attack errors. The Falcons trailed 11-3 early in the set, Matt Knab tried to get things going for the Falcons with back-to-back kills, but the Hawks were dominating on the attack. Hunter only committed one hitting error in the entire third set and picked up a 25-10 victory to go up 2-1.

Game four was Messiah's best offensive performance; they hit .303 (13 kills, 3 errors, 33 attempts). The Falcons jumped out to an early four point lead (9-5) after back-to-back kills from Will Webb. Hunter sided out after a kill of their own, but then the Falcons began to pull away. Kills from Jarred Sands, Brad Nase, Isaiah Han, and a couple of Hawks' errors completed a 5-0 run for Messiah (14-6). Later in the set, Hunter came within five points of Messiah's lead (21-16) however the Falcons finished out the set with a 4-to-1 run to claim a 25-17 victory and to send the match into a fifth and final set.
 
Messiah opened the fifth set with three-straight points after a kill from Jarred Sands and two from Matt Knab. The Hawks sided out with a kill of their own, but Brad Nase scored off of a setter dump to get the ball back for Messiah (4-1). After a couple of Messiah's errors and a few kills by the Hawks, Hunter tied the game up at 6-6. Matt Knab terminated to side out for the Falcons and regained a 7-6 lead. Messiah continued to build and took a three-point (9-6) lead after a kill by Isaiah Han. This momentum shift caused Hunter to call a timeout. The Hawks' were able to side out after the timeout and began to slowly chip away at Messiah's lead. The Falcons were up by just one point (12-11) but after a service error by the Hawks and another kill from Matt Knab, Messiah reached match-point (14-11). Hunter connected on one more swing, but committed an attack error to give the Falcons a 15-12 victory and their second win of the season.

Up Next
Messiah will take a short break and will return to the court when they travel to Lancaster Bible College on Wednesday, Feb. 6 at 6:00 p.m.