GRANTHAM, Pa. - The top-seeded Messiah men's volleyball team are moving on to play in their first MAC Championship in program history after defeating the No. 5 Alvernia Golden Wolves 3-1 (29-27, 24-26, 25-18, 25-22) on Wednesday night in the MAC Semifinals. The Falcons will square-off with the second-seeded Stevenson Mustangs, after Stevenson defeated No. 3 Stevens in four sets in their semifinal.
 
As a team the Falcons hit .258 on Wednesday night with Nate Bowman (.421) and Ian Parzyszek (.406) each finishing with hitting percentages north of .400. Mason Nissley led the Falcons with 23 kills while Parzyszek was close behind with 20 kills on the night.
 
As he has been all season, Matt Knab facilitated the offense, dishing out 54 assists in the Semifinal match. Nissley and Owen Hanzelman tied for the team high in digs, finishing with 12 apiece.
 
The MAC Championship is set for 7:00 p.m. on Saturday night with the Falcons hosting the Mustangs in Hitchcock Arena. The Falcons and Mustangs split their season series with Messiah winning in five sets at home on Mar. 17.
 
Extra Points Needed in First Two Sets
After trading nearly every other point for the first half of the opening set, Messiah built a five-point advantage with a 5-0 run in the middle of the set, going ahead 17-12 after a kill from Mason Nissley. That lead was trimmed to four points at 24-20, but the Falcons were serving for the opening set.
 
Three kills and a pair of Messiah errors allowed Alvernia to go on a 5-0 run to take a 25-24 lead. The next four points were split 2-2 with each team scoring on a service error and a kill. Ian Parzyszek provided the kill for Messiah. After another Alvernia service error tied the set at 27-27, Messiah won the next two points with a kill by Marshall Nixon and an attack error by the Golden Wolves to claim the set 29-27 and take a 1-0 lead in the match.
 
The script was flipped in the second set with the Golden Wolves holding a 23-20 advantage late in the set. Powered by kills from Marshall Nixon and Mason Nissley as well as a service ace from Matt Knab, the Falcons won four of the next five points to tie the match at 24-24. Unfortunately for the Falcons, back-to-back Messiah attack errors allowed the Golden Wolves to take the set 26-24 to level the match at 1-1.
 
Falcons Dominate Third Set
After dropping a tight second set, Messiah jumped out to a 5-0 lead at the beginning of the third game. That early lead ballooned to as many as eight after four-straight attack errors from Alvernia made it 12-4. While the Golden Wolves closed the gap to as few as four on two occasions, Messiah kept their foot on the gas jumping their lead back to seven points by the end of the set. The Falcons claimed the set 25-18 on a kill from Nate Bowman to take the lead back in the match, two sets to one.
 
Messiah was able to run away from Alvernia in the set, despite hitting just .179 as a team. The Golden Wolves actually committed nine errors in the set against just eight kills for a -.038 hitting percentage in the third.
 
Heading to the Title Match
With win the wind in their sails after the third set victory, Messiah methodically took an 11-7 lead early in fourth set. However, Alvernia went on an 11-6 run to take a one-point lead at 18-17. Kills from Parzyszek and Nissley gave the Falcons the lead at 19-18 before the two teams traded every other point until the score was level at 22-22.
 
Once again, it was consecutive kills from Nissley and Parzyszek that gave the Falcons a little cushion at 24-22 before an attack attempt from Alvernia's Logan McGinley went into the net, sending Messiah to the Middle Atlantic Conference Championship Match on Saturday night.
 
The Falcons won the fourth set 25-22 and clinched the match 3-1.
 
What's Up Next
The Falcons will oppose the No. 2 Stevenson Mustangs on Saturday night at 7:00 p.m. in Hitchcock Arena. Stevenson earned their way to the Championships Match with a 3-1 (27-25, 25-17, 22-25, 25-16) victory over the No. 3 Stevens Ducks on Wednesday night.
 
Messiah and Stevenson split their two regular season matches with the Falcons falling in straight sets in Owings Mills on Mar. 10, before claiming a five-set, come-from-behind victory on Mar. 17 at home. The first serve for the MAC Championship Match is scheduled for 7:00 p.m. While no spectators are allowed for MAC Tournament matches, fans are encouraged to follow the action on GoMessiah.tv.