UNION. N.J. – The Messiah men's volleyball won both their matches Saturday afternoon at Kean University. They swept Lehman College in their first match 3-0 (25-9, 25-11, 25-16) before winning a thriller against Kean 3-2 (25-22, 25-15, 20-25, 22-25, 15-12). The Falcons hit .308 as a team against Lehman with Will Webb leading the way with eight kills and hitting an impressive .412. Freshman Matt Schaefer recorded seven kills in the match for the Falcons.

Against Kean, Luke Olson led Messiah with 14 kills while Nate Bowman added 13. Matt Knab dished out 52 assists against Kean. They are back in action Wednesday night at Hitchcock Arena where they take on Lancaster Bible College at 7:00 p.m.

Messiah Defeats Lehman College 3-0 (25-9, 25-11, 25-16)
The Falcons got out to a scorching start in this one against the Lightning, taking a 5-0 lead before stretching it to 16-3 in set one. The Falcons continued to play great in the first set, holding a 19-6 lead and taking advantage of Lehman miscues.

A Mason McCullough kill ended the first game with a 25-9 win for the Falcons, taking a 1-0 lead in the match. Messiah hit a solid .381 in the first set, with Matt Schaefer leading the way with four kills.

Messiah continued their strong play in the second set, getting out to a 9-6 lead, with a couple of service errors allowing for Lehman to hang around. A Noah Wilson kill helped give Messiah a 14-9 lead in the set.

Out of a timeout by the Lightning, the Falcons stormed out to a 5-0 run to extend their lead to 19-9. Two Will Webb aces and a Nate Bowman kill fueled the stretch. This Falcon flurry ballooned to 11-2 and gave Messiah the 25-11 set win and a 2-0 lead in the match.

A kill from Marshall Nixon, Webb, and McCullough paired with Lightning errors helped Messiah jump out to a 10-5 lead in the third set. This lead expanded to 16-5 with Webb recording his second, third, and fourth kills of the set to help the effort. Two more Nixon kills assisted the Falcons to a 20-14 lead.

Despite the push from Lehman in set three, the Falcons came away with a 25-16 set win and a 3-0 match win. 

Messiah Defeats Kean University 3-2 (25-22, 25-15, 20-25, 22-25, 15-12)
Messiah started off their match against Kean up 7-3 before a Cougar timeout got them rolling. Kean used a 6-4 run to cut the lead to 11-9, taking advantage of a few Falcon mishaps.
The Falcons used kills from freshmen Mason Nissley and Luke Olson to stretch their lead to 18-13 and force a Cougar timeout.

Out of the timeout, Messiah continued to hold a comfortable 21-16 lead. This lead tightened though with a Falcon error and kill from Jared Ray. This was followed by a Messiah miscue that forced a Falcon timeout with the score 21-19.

The Falcons found two kills from Ian Parzyszek and Olson that were followed by a Cougar error to give Messiah a 24-20 lead. The Cougars would not go down without a fight though, getting two quick points to make it 24-22 before a Kean error gave Messiah the 25-22 first set win. The Falcons hit .407 in the first set.

Messiah used kills from five different players at the start of the second set to take a 10-4 lead and force a Kean timeout. Messiah expanded the lead to seven and sat with a 14-7 lead after a huge kill from Olson.

The Falcons stretched the lead to nine at 19-10. Messiah used this momentum to end the set 25-15 and give themselves a 2-0 lead in the match.

Neither team gained much momentum at the start of set three, with Kean holding a slight 7-6 edge. This was before a Matt Knab kill and an error from the Cougars gave Messiah the lead back at 8-7. Kean used a few Falcon errors to snag the lead back at 10-9.

The lead stretched to 12-10 before a beautiful Nissley kill to the back left corner made it 12-11. The Falcon comeback was complete with a Knab setter dump to tie the game at 13-13. Kean grabbed the advantage with a 7-3 run to take a 20-16 lead and force a Falcon timeout.

The Cougars held onto the lead to force a fourth set with a 25-20 win to make it 2-1 in the match.

The Falcons began set four with a few phenomenal digs to help them get the point and go up 1-0. The two teams continued to go point for point in the fourth set, with the score tied at 7-7. After both teams could not get any breathing room, the Cougars used a 5-1 run to take a 15-11 lead.

The game was tied up at 17-17 by Messiah with the help of a trio of Parzyszek kills. This became 20-20 before a Cougar kill and Falcon error made it 22-20 Kean. The Cougars were able to take the set 25-22 and send it to a winner-take-all fifth set.

Kean jumped out to a 6-3 lead in set five with the help of four Jared Ray kills. Messiah then tied it up at 6-6, using a few Cougar errors and a Bowman kill to do so.

This became a 9-8 Messiah lead off the strength of kills from Nissley and Bowman. An ace from Knab hit the net and snuck over made the score 12-10 and forced a Kean timeout. A Luke Olson kill off the hands of a Cougar made it 14-11 and put Messiah in the driver's seat. An errant Kean serve gave Messiah a 15-12 set win and a 3-2 match win.