LANGHORNE, Pa. – The Messiah College men's volleyball team traveled to Cairn University to take on the Highlanders on Wednesday evening. The Falcons picked up their first sweep of the season by defeating the Highlanders 25-22, 25-14, 25-18. Messiah is now 3-4 overall and will return to the court on Saturday for their home-opener in Hitchcock Arena.

Messiah had an incredible evening offensively, hitting .312 after terminating 38 swings and only committing 13 errors. Matt Knab led the Falcons with 11 kills, Noah Shreiner added seven, and Isaiah Han contributed five. Brad Nase set the tempo with 24 assists, while Jared Keul added nine. Defensively, Caleb Weaver was all over the court with 13 digs and Adam Black collected nine. The Highlanders struggled on the attack and only hit .129 on the match.

Serving was definitely a strength for Messiah in their win over Cairn, they collected 10 aces and Noah Shreiner led the way with four. The Falcons were also in-system a majority of the match and limited the Highlanders to only two aces.

How It Happened
After trailing early in the first set, Noah Shreiner tied things up at 10-10 after an ace from the service line. The side-out game began for both squads and the score was tied three different times before the Falcons took their first lead (13-12) after Caleb Weaver made two incredible diving saves to keep the ball in play. Once again, the teams continued to exchange points back-and-forth, in which the score was tied four more times, and at 18-18 the Falcons decided to call a timeout. Messiah came out of the timeout with some momentum and began to slowly pull ahead. After a kill and ace from Matt Knab, Messiah had a 22-20 advantage and were close to finishing the set. The Highlanders hung around and came within one-point (23-22) of the lead, but back-to-back kills from Will Webb and Matt Knab sealed the victory for the Falcons (25-22).

The Falcons served tough in the first set, collecting five of their total ten aces. Matt Knab and Noah Shreiner led the way offensively in game one, each collecting five kills. As a team, Messiah hit .379 which was their most efficient set in the entire match.

Messiah started game two with an early 2-0 lead after a kill from Matt Knab and an ace from Adam Black, however the Highlanders scored back-to-back points to tie things up (2-2). The Falcons began to open up their lead and pulled ahead 10-4 after aggressive play from the front row and solid passing from the defense. The two teams briefly battled back-and-forth, but the Falcons scored three-straight points to pull ahead 16-7, this run included another service ace from Will Webb. Messiah continued to stay on top; a kill from Isaiah Han and a block by Noah Shreiner and Brad Nase extended the Falcons lead to 10-points (18-8). Derek Siewert finished the set (25-14) for the Falcons after terminating on the right side which gave Messiah a 2-0 advantage going into the third and final set.

Noah Shreiner got things started for the Falcons in the third set after a big kill off of Jared Keul's assist. Shreiner followed his kill up with back-to-back service aces to take an early 3-0 lead. Matt Knab added to this lead (4-0) after a kill down the line off a quick tempo set from Jared Keul. The Highlanders battled and came within two points of the lead (9-7) after two-straight kills, but the Falcons answered with a 7-to-2 run to pull ahead 16-9, including another service ace from Noah Shreiner. Late in the set, Messiah held a 22-13 lead, however Cairn went on a 5-to-1 run to bring the Falcons' lead down to five points (23-18) but it wouldn't be enough. Messiah produced back-to-back kills from Noah Shreiner and Noah Wilson to close out the match (25-18) and to pick up their first sweep of the season.

Up Next
Messiah will be back in action on Saturday when they host Misericordia University and Widener University in their home-opener. This will be the beginning of conference play for the Falcons, they will play at 1:00 p.m. and 5:00 p.m.