BEAVER FALLS, Pa. - The Messiah College men's volleyball traveled to Beaver Falls on Saturday to take on the first-year program, Geneva College. The Falcons fell to the Golden Tornadoes 3-1 (25-16, 25-21, 21-25, 25-18) in the afternoon's battle and moved to 2-4 overall on the season. The Falcons dropped the first two sets of the match but battled back in the third to win it 25-21. However, they couldn't hold on and dropped the fourth set 25-18.

The Falcons struggled finding an offensive rhythm throughout the match, hitting -.006 (47 kills, 48 errors, 162 attempts) on the afternoon. The Golden Tornadoes didn't have an outstanding performance on the attack either, they hit .074 (27 kills, four errors, 121 attempts). Geneva did take care of the net defensively, tallying 10 solo blocks and 18 block assists, while Messiah only had one solo block (Jarred Sands) and eight assisted blocks in the entire match.

Brad Nase steadied the Falcons' offense with 39 assists, while Caleb Weaver and Adam Black led the back row with 18 and 14 digs, respectively. Matt Knab led all attackers with 16 kills and collected 10 digs, while Noah Shreiner terminated nine swings in the middle position. Jarred Sands picked up seven kills and three blocks for Messiah while Noah Wilson contributed seven kills.

How It Happened
The Falcons were trailing early in the first set after five consecutive attack errors. However, Matt Knab collected three-straight kills for the Falcons to bring the Golden Tornadoes' lead down to just three points (7-4). Geneva continued to keep their foot on the gas and held a 17-7 advantage midway through the set. Messiah pieced together a 6-to-0 run that consisted of two more kills from Matt Knab and three Geneva attack errors to come within four points of the lead (17-13). The Golden Tornadoes finished out the first set on a 8-to-3 run, to pick up a 25-16 win going into set two.

Messiah stepped up their offensive game in the second set, hitting a game high of .118 and only committing eight errors. The Falcons held an early 8-5 lead after a kill and back-to-back service aces from Jarred Sands, however the Golden Tornadoes collected four-straight points to take the lead (9-8). Both teams battled throughout the middle portion of the set and the score was tied at four different times. Late in the set, Messiah was within two points (22-20) of the lead after a kill from Noah Wilson, but Geneva capitalized on three late Falcon errors to claim the set 25-21.

The third set was a battle and consisted of side-out volleyball for the majority of play. Messiah collected 14 kills in the third set, compared to Geneva's six and this was the only set the Golden Tornadoes hit in the negative (-.026). The score was tied at 19-19 and the Falcons launched on a five-point run to pull ahead 24-19. This run included three blocks from Messiah, a kill from Jarred Sands, and a ball-handling error by the Golden Tornadoes. After two errors by the Falcons, Messiah ended the set with a kill from Adam Black to win the set (25-21) and remain in the match.

The fourth and final set was competitive at the beginning, but Geneva generated a run midway through and held a 15-10 advantage over the Falcons. Messiah slowly tried to chip away at the Golden Tornadoes' lead with kills from Isaiah Han, Noah Wilson, and Noah Shreiner however Geneva was able to side-out and limit Messiah's runs to pull out a 25-18 victory.
 
Up Next
The Falcons will look to bounce back on Wednesday, Feb. 13 when they travel to Cairn University for a 7:00 p.m. start. Messiah will then host their home-opener on Saturday, Feb. 16 when they play Misericordia University (1:00 p.m.) and Widener University (5:00 p.m.)