GRANTHAM, Pa. - The Messiah College men's volleyball team secured their fourth-straight victory after they defeated the Eastern University Eagles 3-0 on Wednesday evening. The Falcons remain undefeated (3-0) in the MAC Commonwealth and moved to 6-4 overall. Messiah had a dominant start to the match and defeated Eastern 25-12 in the first set. The Falcons continued to control the match in set two and picked up a 25-20 victory. The Eagles led for a majority of the third and final set, however the Falcons battled back late and won the competitive set 25-23.
Overall, Messiah had a great night offensively and hit a 0.347 on the match.
Matt Knab led the way with 13 kills and
Will Webb terminated eight.
Brad Nase led the Falcons' offense with 28 assists and
Caleb Weaver defended well with 14 digs.
Hot Start for The Falcons
Messiah hit an impressive .500 in the first set after terminating 12 swings on 20 attempts with only two errors. The Falcons opened up the set on an 8-1 run forcing the Eagles to call a timeout. Eastern came out of the timeout with a kill, however Messiah responded with back-to-back kills from
Jarred Sands and
Will Webb to pull ahead (10-2). The Falcons kept their foot on the gas and held a 21-8 after a kill from
Matt Knab and a ball-handling error by the Eagles. The two teams traded points towards the end of the set and an out-of-system kill from
Matt Knab clinched the 25-12 win for Messiah.
Messiah Maintains Momentum
The Falcons started off the second set strong and had a 10-3 advantage early in the set, seven of those ten points were earned off of Messiah's kills. The Eagles went on a 7-to-2 to bring the Falcons' lead down to 18-14 but Messiah was able to score on back-to-back attempts from
Will Webb and
Noah Shreiner to pull ahead 20-14. Late in the set, Eastern started to slowly creep back into the game and came within two points of the lead (21-19). However, the Falcons responded and closed out on a 4-to-1 run including a setter dump from
Brad Nase to go up 2-0.
Eagles Come Back, Falcons Finish
Messiah opened the third set with a 3-1 lead after two errors by Eastern and a kill for
Matt Knab, but after three-straight errors by the Falcons, Eastern took their first lead of the match (4-3). Both teams competed back-and-forth and the score was tied four different times before the Eagles went on a three-point run to gain a 10-8 lead over the Falcons. Messiah continued to make some errors throughout the middle of the set and Eastern was up 14-10, however the Falcons pieced together a three-point run to come within one point of the lead. The Eagles were able to stay on top and the score was 22-20 in their favor late into the set. Messiah finished the set on a 5-to-1 run (25-23), to pick up their fourth-straight victory and remain undefeated on Jordan Court.
Up Next
The Falcons will travel to Wilkes University this Saturday for two more conference matches. Messiah will take on Wilkes at 1:00 p.m. and Alvernia at 3:00 p.m.
